Inmate charged with assaulting jail worker, April 2020 murder gets 3 life sentences
HOUSTON - A staggering number of assaults have occurred inside the Harris County Jail, as attacks on workers there are said to be on the rise. In fact, one inmate charged with repeatedly being violent was in court today.
You may have seen the horrific pictures of a detention officer severely beaten at the Harris County Jail over the weekend.
RELATED: Harris County Jail inmate accused of violently attacking, seriously injuring detention officer
Well, the 23-year-old inmate Christian Dillard, who is now charged with that vicious attack, appeared in court as the Harris County Deputies' Organization is raising concerns over the significant increase of inmate attacks on employees in the jail.
"He brutally assaulted a detention officer at the jail. We filed new charges based on that, and due to the severity of the assault the District Attorney’s Office decided to withdraw its plea offer," explains Assistant District Attorney Joshua Raygor.
It was Detention Officer J. Valdiviez who was violently attacked inside the Harris County Jail over the weekend and inmate Christian Dillard has been charged with the aggravated assault.
"He shoves the detention officer down the stairs in the back, ends up landing on top of him, and knocking him unconscious by punching him repeatedly in the head, and continuing to assault him once the deputy became unconscious," Raygor explains.
Dillard appeared in court Tuesday surrounded by deputies, and two officers who looked like they were in riot gear.
The 23-year-old was in the Harris County Jail charged with robbing, shooting and killing Matthew Harris at a Greenspoint gas station in 2020. Dillard has a long criminal history including charges while in jail.
"There’s been several incidents with officers, inmates, things of that nature to the point where he had been assigned to solitary confinement. He had only been allowed outside his cell for an hour a day. That’s when this incident happened," Raygor adds. The incident he’s referring to is the attack on detention officer Valdiviez.
The Harris County Deputies' Organization says overcrowding and understaffing are contributing to a vast increase of inmate attacks in the jail. In nine months, from January to September 2021, there were 939 assaults on staff, according to the deputy's association.
They tell FOX 26 just this year, and July isn’t even over, there have been 673 Harris County jail workers attacked by inmates and another 2,153 inmates assaulted by other inmates. That number does not include the more than 2,400 fights.
In court, Harris’ mom Molly Yuille, gave a victim impact statement before Dillard was sentenced to three life sentences.
Dillard apologized saying he thinks about and regrets killing Harris every day.
"I can tell by his subsequent actions that he’s committed since that crime was committed that change hasn’t been made on his end. So I’ll leave it to the evidence we have and what he’s done, not what he’s saying," says Raygor.
Dillard was initially supposed to go to court today and enter a plea deal to serve 60 years behind bars for shooting and killing Matthew Harris in 2020. That plea was changed to three life sentences after investigators say Dillard attacked the detention officer inside the jail.
Dillard will be eligible for parole after 30 years.