Change of appearance? Above, James “Big Time” Ofeldt as he looked on his first day of trial this week and below, Ofeldt at a hearing last year.
A trial that could open a very ugly can of worms at the Ely State Prison and perhaps shake the foundations of the entire Nevada Department of Corrections began this week in Ely.
Opening statements:[media id=931 width=320 height=240]
Accused of the 2011 murder of his cell mate Erik “Bingo” Houser, Ofeldt has never denied the killing but instead has insisted he was acting in self defense.
Over the past two years, his defense attorney, Charles Odgers has laid at least a preliminary case of self defense and according to more than a few pieces of correspondence between prison officials and the White Pine County Sheriff’s office they may have enough to raise at least a reasonable doubt in the minds of jurors.
Documents obtained by the Advocate at least suggest that both investigators from the prison and the White Pine County Sheriff’s Department did not dismiss that angle out of hand.
click for documents:espdocs
According to those and other documents Ofeldt was fingered for killing to seal a truce between two white prison gangs the Aryan Warriors and the Skin Heads. Ofeldt, the correspondence suggested, was accused of being a snitch by the Aryan Warriors and Houser was picked for the job.
In a motion filed last year, Odgers accused the state of withholding evidence that proves Ofeldt, innocent of the murder but was acting in self defense. According to the motion prosecutors conducted several interviews with four other inmates identified as white gang members including the leader of the gang at Ely Max. In addition to keeping those interviews secret from the defense, Odgers claimed that in at least one interview the inmate not only admitted to being the gang’s leader but also to giving the order to Houser to murder Ofeldt.
While Ofeldt was allegedly facing a death sentence for the mere suspicion of ratting out a fellow inmate, those who have agreed to testify against him are allegedly being rewarded with better conditions and even transfers out of Ely Max to much nicer facilities at Lovelock medium security.
According to court documents the four inmates have since been transferred to the medium security prison in Lovelock. One of those four, whose names have not been released, is described as the leader of the prison gang who put the contract out on Ofeldt.
While life in Lovelock is by no means paradise, to inmates at Ely Max it is a much better place to do time.
Unlike the 23 hour lock down and numerous head counts in a place known by cons as ‘The Graveyard’, Lovelock Correctional Center offers a wide range of programs for all of the inmate population and an opportunity to enroll in educational classes in pursuit of a GED, high school diploma or college degrees. Lovelock’s Legislative approved program, Structured Living Program is one of the most successful. SLP initially started as a 10 week military-style institutional orientation program. With the popularity among inmates to enroll, this program quickly expanded to a six month regimen with opportunities for inmates to earn Merit Credits, attend classes, programs, education, attain jobs and participate in physical fitness training. Lovelock has begun offering inmates some vocational training in areas of dry cleaning, culinary food service, and automotive maintenance and repair. Lovelock also has its own medical and mental health staff serving the inmate population.
Some of those documents seem to imply that some prison staff knew days or even weeks before the killing occurred that something was up between Ofeldt and Houser and ignored warnings from other inmates.
While Houser except for the escape attempt that land him in Ely Max had a mostly clean or not particularly violent record, Ofeldt was a different story.
In juvenile detention, jail or prison since he was nine years old the inmate is if anything a poster child for all that is wrong with the prison system.
From the day he arrived in 2004 Ofeldt has apparently been at war with Ely State Prison waged against both staff and fellow inmates alike. According to his prison disciplinary report, Ofeldt has spent almost half his so far nine years in prison under one form of discipline or another and close to four years in solitary confinement otherwise know as disciplinary segregation.
Most of the infractions Ofeldt was punished for were from fighting and assaults on other inmates to assaults on guards. His longest stretch in solitary began on October 31, 2009 and ended shortly before he killed cell mate Houser in May 2011.
That long stretch in isolation could also play a role in his defense.
Last year, Judge Dan Papez found the potential of violence so great that he granted the prosecution motion that Ofeldt wear a stun belt during his upcoming trial.
Ofeldt was recently examined by Dr. John Matthew Fabian PSY.D., J.D., ABPP. According to his website. Dr. Fabian is one of a few national expert witnesses who is both board certified in Forensic and Clinical Psychology, and Fellowship Trained in Clinical Neuropsychology.
In a phone interview with the High Desert Advocate Fabian said he was asked to evaluate whether or not Ofeldt may have felt his life was threatened when the inmate killed Houser.
While Fabian did not mention whether Ofeldt long periods of isolation could form a part of an insanity defense, the months if not years he spent in solitary would certainly figure on his state of mind.
The effect of solitary confinement on mental health has been studied and discussed by psychiatrists since the 1930s. According to psychiatrist Stuart Grassian, a specialist in the area, inmates are more likely to under-report than to over-report its effects (i.e., “Some of the guys can’t take it—not me”).
Recently some have argued that evidence for a unique syndrome is insufficient and accused its proponents of bias because they advocate for prisoners in legal cases relating to solitary confinement. A study conducted by the Colorado Department of Corrections found that solitary confinement did not undermine mental health, and suggested that inmates in isolation often had mental health problems that should not be attributed to the isolation itself.
The International Red Cross considers Solitary Confinement to be a form of psychological torture when the period of confinement is longer than a few weeks or is continued indefinitely. Negative psychological effects have been documented, leading one judge in a 2001 suit to rule that “[Solitary confinement] units are virtual incubators of psychoses—seeding illness in otherwise healthy inmates and exacerbating illness in those already suffering from mental infirmities.”
According to sources the reluctance to play an insanity defense and admit to weakness may have been one of the reasons Ofeldt sought to fire his attorneys earlier this year. The inmate’s attitude may have changed.
In a hearing earlier this year Ofeldt volunteered that he had trouble paying a attention and suffered from attention deficit disorder.
Ofeldt has changed more than his attitude instead of the shaved head and goatee of the hardened inmate of last year, Wednesday in court he was clean shaven and sported a full head of hair