Knife-wielding suspect injured in Cascade County jail
It was a busy afternoon at the Cascade County Detention Center as more than a dozen detainees and at least four detention officers crowded the small room used to accommodate court appearances via closed circuit television.
Six men made initial court appearances for allegedly assaulting a fellow inmate — Wesley Crawford, the man accused of threatening another man with a knife Saturday morning.
Keith William Walker, Marion Wallace Runsthrough, Thomas John Sutherland and Michael Thomas Badoldman have been charged with aggravated assault, a felony, for allegedly attacking Crawford on Saturday evening.
According to court documents, the four men pulled Crawford into a cell, where he remained for several minutes. The report says Crawford immediately reported the attack to jail staff. The time line was verified by surveillance video.
Charging documents say Crawford was transported to the emergency room and treated for a fracture of the spinous process of cervical vertebra, effusion of the right knee, abrasions and contusions.
The report says the video also showed two inmates standing outside the cell door, as if they were keeping watch. Those men, identified in the charging document as Emmett Alfred Buckles III and Donald Dean Biederman, are charged with accountability to aggravated assault, a felony.
Court documents say Biederman and Sutherland used a mop and bucket to remove blood evidence from the cell after the alleged attack. They are both charged with felony evidence tampering. The charging document says Biederman was seen on video closing the cell door before the incident.
District Judge Dirk Sandefur set bail for all six defendants at $25,000 each, though some of the men are state or federal inmates and others have bonds set in other pending criminal matters.
Despite his injuries, Crawford made his initial court appearance on one count of assault with a weapon, a felony. Crawford was the last inmate at the jail to appear. He was escorted into the room by a detention officer after the other inmates were escorted out.
Court documents say Crawford threatened a man with a hunting knife Saturday, telling the man “demons told me I should pluck out your eye.”
The report says officers working the previous night reported dealing with Crawford during their shift.
Charging documents list a criminal history for Crawford that include federal convictions for burglary and probation violations, along with state convictions for intimidation cases, assaults, thefts, probation revocations and parole violations.
Sandefur set Crawford’s bail at $25,000.
