Garner Inmates Arrested After

Prison Incidents

State police report a series of criminal incidents at Garner Correctional Institution, the state’s high-security prison at 50 Nunnawauk Road.

On April 19, Garner inmate Willie Bryant, 35, attacked and injured three male correction officers after Bryant returned to the prison from a court appearance, state police said.

Injured in the incident were correction officers Scott Standish, Omar Soto, and Michael Deeb, state police said.

State police charged Bryant with three counts of assault on a correction officer, for which he was then scheduled for appear in Danbury Superior Court on April 20.

Bryant had been in court on April 19 in connection with an incident that had occurred in Garner on April 18, in which Bryant had hit a fire sprinkler within his cell with a chair, causing the cell to flood, state police said.

The sprinkler incident resulted in Bryant being charged with fourth-degree criminal mischief and refusal to be fingerprinted, state police said.

Bryant is serving a 15-year sentence in Garner on a first-degree assault conviction.

On April 17, state police said Garner inmate Saez Rivera, 49, was found to have two homemade weapons on his person inside his cell, so they charged him with two counts of possession of a weapon in a correctional institution.

Rivera was scheduled for an April 19 court arraignment on the charges.

Rivera is serving a 35-year sentence on a first-degree sexual assault conviction.

Also, on April 13, state police report an inmate-vs-inmate assault at Garner involving Francisco Presti, 38, and Skender Mustafaj, 51. State police said the incident is under investigation.

Presti is serving a 15-year sentence on a first-degree assault conviction. Mustafaj is an unsentenced inmate who is being held on bail in Garner on a pending charge of risk of injury to a minor.