Man Acquitted In Fellow Inmate's Stabbing Death

DENVER (AP) - Jurors have acquitted a man accused in the stabbing death of another inmate at the Limon Correction Facility.

A Prowers County jury acquitted Alejandro Perez last week of charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the death in 2004 of Jeffrey Heird.

Defense attorney Jim Castle told The Denver Post there was no physical evidence linking Perez to the crime. The lawyer for Perez's co-defendant, David Bueno, has said other inmates wrongly blamed Perez and Bueno for the crime.

District Attorney Carol Chambers for the 18th Judicial District says it's difficult to prosecute a homicide that occurs in a correctional facility. She says there are credibility issues to overcome when witnesses are other inmates and that witnesses are frequently intimidated.

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