Mother of Slain Va. Inmate Claims Guard Conspiracy
By DENA POTTER Associated Press
RICHMOND, Va. July 30, 2012 (AP)
Guards and security officials at Virginia’s most secure prison conspired with an inmate to give him the opportunity to kill another prisoner, the slain man’s mother claims in a lawsuit.
Aaron Cooper, 26, was killed on July 28, 2010, when Robert Gleason strangled him through a separate cage on the recreation yard at the supermax Red Onion State Prison. Gleason, who was serving a life sentence for a 2007 slaying and had killed his cellmate in 2009, had vowed before Cooper’s death to keep killing unless he was sentenced to death. Gleason received the death sentence last year.