1
0
Months after he was convicted of ordering murders throughout the California prison system, Ronald Dean Yandell, 62, an imprisoned leader of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang allegedly attacked two corrections officers who were escorting him back to his cell.
Ronald Yandell allegedly drew a knife on two prison guards as they were bringing him to his cell from a medical appointment at California State Prison, Sacramento on Nov. 22.
No staff were injured in the fight, but they did deploy pepper spray on Yandell, causing him to drop the weapon, according to a news release by the state prison system.
The incident came two months after a different corrections officer injured Yandell during a transport, allegedly knocking him down and striking him while he was handcuffed. Yandell had filed a lawsuit alleging prison and federal authorities retaliated against him for political advocacy work just days before he was injured.
Yandell has not been charged in connection with the Nov. 22 incident, but it was being treated as a double attempted murder. Prison officials say they plan to send the case to the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office.
Yandell, a former West Contra Costa resident, is currently awaiting sentencing in a federal racketeering case, where he was convicted of conspiracies to commit murder, smuggle drugs and other contraband in prison and serving as a leader of the notorious prison gang. Most of the convictions centered on a Drug Enforcement Administration-led wiretap of Yandell’s contraband cellphone in the late 2010s.
Tensions have been brewing in the Sacramento prison where Yandell and his fellow gang members are housed. One of his co-defendants, Brant Daniel, recently accused prison staff of attempting to set him up to be killed through a planned transfer to a prison in Corcoran. Another of Yandell’s co-defendants, Danny Troxell, traded death threats with him during their trial last March, before both men were convicted.
Yandell is also known for political advocacy work, having helped arranged a peace treaty between rival prison gangs and serving as a leader of a prison-wide hunger strike in the early 2010s.
Average Rating