Death Row Inmate Has Outburst

A federal judge is considering whether to place Ronell Wilson under more restrictive conditions after he threw a violent tantrum in a prison in Brooklyn, just days after being sentenced to death for the murder of two detectives.

No one was hurt during the outburst on Saturday, when Wilson, 24, picked up a chair and used it to shatter two windows in a visiting room at the Metropolitan Detention Center. Still, a federal judge, Nicholas Garaufis, told prosecutors and defense attorneys yesterday that he was alarmed by the incident.

"I'm angry," Judge Garaufis said. "I'm not having anybody's safety compromised by Mr. Wilson ever again."

Judge Garaufis told defense attorneys that future court hearings would be conducted via video conferencing from Wilson's cell or that the defendant would be brought into court shackled.

A week ago, a federal jury instructed Judge Garaufis to sentence Wilson to death for the 2003 killings of two undercover detectives in Staten Island. At the request of defense attorneys, the judge said he asked prison authorities to allow Wilson's mother and two sisters to visit the condemned man.

Judge Garaufis said prison officials told him that Wilson became violent on Saturday after learning that he would be separated from his family by a partition. Prior to the start of the visit, Wilson went on a rampage, Judge Garaufis said, and it took authorities four hours to subdue him.

Ultimately, Wilson took a prison psychologist's advice and submitted to being brought back to his cell, Judge Garaufis said. The judge praised prison guards for showing "excellent restraint."

"The judge is going to sign a death warrant and he wants to turn this guy into a devil," a defense attorney, Mitchell Dinnerstein, told reporters, referring to Wilson.