'If you look at us, we will kill you': Hostage recounts bloody Vaughn uprising

Correctional officer Winslow Smith said it was a normal day on the job Feb. 1, 2017, until a masked man punched him in the face and an unknown person struck the back of his head.

“I remember I was getting hit by a lot of people,” Smith, 37, told the New Castle County jury responsible for determining the guilt of four inmates charged with murder and other crimes stemming from the 2017 uprising and hostage standoff at James T. Vaughn Correctional Center near Smyrna.

Smith was one of three correctional officers working inside Building C and taken hostage. Officer Joshua Wilkinson, 31, was another.

Wilkinson said he was closing a door in the prison when he heard footsteps behind him. By the time he turned around, “multiple offenders” were “right up on” him and attacked, he said. 

“I tried to block and swing back,” Wilkinson said. “At that point, I felt something hard hit the left side of my head. Next thing I remember is waking up on the floor.”

As he was attacked, Smith said, he could see Wilkinson fighting and Lt. Steven Floyd being pushed into a mop closet. Floyd was killed during the standoff.

After being beaten, Smith stood up to see another masked inmate with a knife taking prison counselor Patricia May hostage, he said.

Smith tried to intervene, but was beaten again and handcuffed, he said. He was taken to one of the cells, then moved into a closet with Wilkinson, he testified.

Prosecutors have said inmates on trial used "coordinated violence" to take control of the building. Neither man said he could identify his attackers in testimony Tuesday. 

CODE ONE: Assault on an officer

Officials at the prison first got word of the uprising when an unknown officer radioed “code one,” which designates an assault on an officer, testified Staff Lt. Charles Sennett on Wednesday.

Officer Jordan Peters said he was the first to arrive at the entrance to the building after the message. He didn’t have a key to enter but through windows saw blood on the floor and one of the offices "torn apart.” 

Sennett testified he was responsible for responding to incidents in Building C. When the assault call came, he went there, waiting for a response team to assemble before entering the T-shaped building.

“I saw locker boxes scattered through the foyer, and I saw blood all over the floor," Sennett testified.

To the left of this entrance, cell tier A's door was open with nobody in sight, he said.   

“I knew something wasn’t right,” he said.

In the opposite direction was cell tier C. He saw nobody.

Usually, prisoners would be walking the halls and the response team would be met by an officer at the entrance, he testified. Instead, they were greeted by smoke, fire alarms and water coming from the building’s sprinklers, he said.

“The hairs on the back of my neck are standing up, not knowing what is going on,” Sennett told the jury.

Peters was behind Sennett as they entered. He told the jury he saw May with her head covered and arms bound to a chair through a window into the counselor’s office. 

“I wasn’t sure if this was an actual situation that was going on or if it was a test,” Peters said. “There were a few moments that we were standing there — all these thoughts are going through my head.”

Sennett said he went further than Peters and as he neared a closet heard Floyd’s voice and saw the blue of his shirt through a “metallic screen." 

“They took over the building. It is a setup. Get out,” Floyd told Sennett, according to the officer's testimony. 

He ordered the team out of the building.

“For us to walk into that setting and offer up more hostages was out of the question,” Sennett said.

CODE THREE: Major disturbance

Prosecutors played audio of correctional officers communicating once Sennett's team was outside:

CODE THREE! CODE THREE! NOT A DRILL! INMATES HAVE SEIZED THE BUILDING IN CHARLIE!

WE GOT SMOKE IN THE BUILDING AS WELL. SERGEANT LOCKED IN A CLOSET AS WELL!

WE ARE GOING TO NEED A MASS RESPONSE! WE GOT BLOOD ALL OVER THE FLOOR AND WE ARE NOT SURE WHOSE IT IS UNTIL WE GET IN THERE!

Inside, Wilkinson and Smith found themselves bloodied, handcuffed and locked in a closet near the room where Floyd was held.

Wilkinson recalled “a loud object striking” Floyd some 10 to 15 times over a prolonged period.

“I remember hearing Sgt. Floyd screaming because they were assaulting him. Just screaming. I don’t remember any words,” Smith said. (Floyd was posthumously promoted to the rank of lieutenant.)

“It was completely dark," Smith said. "So I tapped (Wilkinson) once in a while to make sure he was still alive, and he would tap me to make sure I was still alive."

Water from the sprinklers had pooled on the floor, Wilkinson said.

They could hear “commotion” outside but didn't recognize any voices and at no point saw the unmasked faces of their captors, the men testified.

They remained there for hours and described occasional interactions with the inmates, including the prisoners demanding the passwords to a computer.

“They had a blanket that had been wrapped really tight in a cylinder and lit on fire and thrown on us,” Smith said.

About four hours, inmates put a pillowcase over Wilkinson's head before releasing Smith from the prison building with a list of names Smith testified he can no longer remember. 

[Inmates, attorneys question credibility of state's Vaughn prison riot investigation]

[Prosecutor: Lt. Floyd found beaten, handcuffed, face down in water]

[Public defender criticizes state's secrecy in Vaughn prison riot case]

[Upcoming trials on deadly Vaughn prison riot spark hope for more of the story]

[Delaware prison riot defendant pleaded guilty months ago]

As they prepared to send him out, Smith said, his captors told him: "‘If you look at us, we will kill you."

Wilkinson was released later. May was rescued after tactical teams used a backhoe to breach the building, ending the standoff. 

Wilkinson and Smith suffered broken bones, bruises and cuts. They both said they have post-traumatic stress disorder.

The correction officers are party to a $7.5 million settlement that followed a lawsuit filed by them, other DOC workers and Floyd’s family against the state.

Connections and contradictions

Sennett’s testimony offered the first piece of evidence connecting one of the men by name to the riot. He testified that after the response team left, he was locking the door and saw defendant Dwayne Staats through the window.

“I saw him run by on A tier and then turn back around and ran back to where the others were gathered,” Sennett said. “It looks as though he was looking to see what we were doing.”

Sennett said he later saw two other inmates not currently on trial.

Staats, who is representing himself, questioned Sennett regarding his state of mind when he claims to have seen him. Sennett said he was “shaken.”

Ben Gifford, who is representing Deric Forney, noted that Sennett had not told a detective during the uprising that he had identified any inmates. Weeks later, Sennett reported seeing Staats and the two other men while responding to the riot, Gifford told Judge William C. Carpenter.  

Gifford was arguing, with the jury out of the room, against prosecutors' objection to him questioning Sennett about who he spoke to in the days following the riot.  

He raised concerns of collusion among potential witnesses. Inmates were speaking to inmates, correctional officers were speaking to each other and those same officers were speaking to inmates, Gifford said. 

"There is a level of taint that touches every aspect of this investigation, and this is just another part of it," Gifford said, arguing the relevance of his inquiry. 

With the jury back in, Sennett admitted to speaking to one inmate about the standoff. He said it was not an improper conversation under questioning from Deputy Attorney General John Downs.

“I’m not an investigator. I know my boundaries,” Sennett said.

Staats also drew the jury's attention to a previous interview Sennett gave to a detective during the standoff. He did not tell that detective Floyd had said the words “get out of here.”

In response, Sennett confirmed that Floyd addressed him but that he may have picked up the “get out” piece from another correctional officer with him.

Upon questioning from Ayers, Smith said he never had any problems with the inmate. He added that he didn't know why the uprising occurred, heard nothing brewing and didn't feel threatened at the facility. 

Jason Antoine, defendant Roman Shankaras' attorney, seized on statements made by Wilkinson regarding Floyd. 

In an interview shortly after the hostage standoff, Wilkinson was asked why this might have happened to Floyd. Wilkinson told the detective Floyd had "an ego problem sometimes." 

Upon questioning from Antoine, he denied making the statement. After Antoine showed him a transcript of the interview, Wilkinson said he didn't remember making the statement. 

Contact Xerxes Wilson at (302) 324-2787 or xwilson@delawareonline.com. Follow @Ber_Xerxes on Twitter.