BRICKEYS, AR (AP, abc24.com) - A convicted killer who allegedly stabbed an east Arkansas prison guard to death has been moved to a maximum security prison.
Department of Correction spokeswoman Shea Wilson said Saturday that 30-year-old Latavious Johnson arrived at the Varner Unit in Grady Friday night from the East Arkansas Regional Unit near Brickeys.
Johnson is suspected of stabbing 47-year-old guard Barbara Ester after Ester took contraband tennis shoes from Johnson on Friday. No charges have been filed.
Wilson said Ester was stabbed with a sharpened piece of metal that appeared to have come from an air-conditioning vent.
Wilson said Ester is the second Department of Correction prison guard to be killed by an inmate. Guard Scott Grimes was stabbed to death in 1995 at the maximum security unit at Tucker.
