PORT ANGELES — A Clallam County Superior Court jury has convicted an inmate of assaulting a Clallam Bay Corrections Center officer.
Carlos Avalos, 20, was accused of repeatedly stabbing Corrections Officer Eric Huether with a 4- to 5-inch homemade metal knife, or “shank,” on Feb. 3, 2014.
Court documents said the officer was able to activate his body alarm, and another officer stopped Avalos’ assault by spraying him with pepper spray. Other officers arrived and subdued Avalos.
The bloody “shank,” likely crafted from metal removed from a cell heating vent, was found in the hallway, the documents said.
Huether suffered cuts to his face, head, neck, hands and torso.
He had a long gash near his right eye and a cut to his throat, state Department of Corrections investigators said.
Huether was taken by ambulance to Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles with non-life-threatening injuries. He was recovering at home the next day.
Avalos, who had pleaded not guilty, was convicted of second-degree assault Friday. Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 25. He faces four years and five months to five years and 10 months.
The 850-inmate medium- to maximum-security prison went into lockdown for nearly a week after the attack.
Huether was attacked while he worked at a computer station in an office. He said he had never interacted with Avalos and that the attack was completely unprovoked.
Avalos has been serving a 10-year sentence for attacking counselor with a homemade knife and hitting a security officer at a corrections vocational school in Chehalis in June 2012.
The state Attorney General’s Office prosecuted the case at the request of the Clallam County Prosecutor’s Office. The prosecutors were Assistant Attorneys General Joshua Choate and John Hillman.
