Guard pleads guilty to murder charge
DJ
Guard pleads guilty to murder charge
Alexa Hoffman
Daily Record Staff Writer
Former guard Pamela Dickens hesitated, her head bowed, then whispered the word
that may lead to 16 years on the other side of the bars.
"Guilty."
The 47-year-old Florence woman, a guard with the Colorado Department of
Corrections since May 2000, pleaded guilty Monday to solicitation to commit
first-degree murder, a Class 2 felony. Charges of conspiracy to commit
first-degree murder after deliberation, also a Class 2 felony, and two counts
of sexual contact by an employee in a penal institution, Class 6 felonies, were
dropped.
The sentencing agreement requests that Dickens' term not exceed 16 years.
Should she receive the maximum 16 years, Dickens also will receive five years
of mandatory parole.
Sentencing is set for 9 a.m. May 4.
Throughout the plea hearing, Dickens responded to District Court Judge Chuck
Barton's questions on whether she knowingly and willingly signed the plea
agreement with a voice tight with emotion and choked out "no" when he asked if
she needed to compose herself.
Later, Dickens was denied a request for a brief furlough to put herself in
order that her court-appointed attorney, Magdalena Rosa, said she could not
perform. Barton said he wanted to wait until a presentence investigation report
was completed before considering a possibility of a furlough.
Dickens was arrested Dec. 12 following a six-month investigation by CDOC
investigators on original charges of sexual misconduct in a penal institution
and first-degree official misconduct. She remains in the Fremont County
Detention Center on a $250,000 bond.
The investigation began when reports were filed with the correctional
investigations unit regarding rumors Dickens and an inmate, Russell "Rick"
Hampton, also 47, were engaging in sexual contact. Hampton was serving a
sentence at CTCF for sexual assault, which started in 1986. He was at CTCF from
Feb. 20 to Aug. 13, 2003, after which he was transferred to Colorado State
Penitentiary.
In early July, according to the arrest warrant affidavit, reports were made to
Alexander Wold, a CDOC investigator, that there was possible misconduct
occurring between Dickens and Hampton, as well as reports an officer found both
Dickens and Hampton "breathing heavily and sweating" in a stairwell. Staff
reports between July 8 and Aug. 1, according to the affidavit, mention lengthy
conversations between the two.
On Sept. 9, according to the arrest report, Hampton spoke with Wold and
admitted to having sexual contact on two occasions with Dickens, as well mutual
sexual fondling, although he never mentioned sexual intercourse.
He also agreed to turn over 24 typed and hand-written love letters, which were
later discovered to match with Dickens' handwriting. He also reported to Wold
that Dickens asked him if he would kill her husband, Tim, a correctional
officer for Fourmile Correctional Facility, when he got out.
She reportedly said Tim's life insurance was worth $250,000, and she'd also get
his military retirement, which she'd use to set up Hampton with a roofing
business.
In a Nov. 1 recorded phone call, Dickens allegedly told Hampton she had
increased Tim's insurance to $1 million for an accidental death insurance
policy.
A month later, according to the report, Hampton told Dickens to meet with a
friend, "Bill," who was really an undercover officer with the Pueblo Police
Department, to arrange Tim's accident. "Bill" was Det. Wayne Luzzia, who acted
as the proposed hit-man in a meeting Dec. 12 at Denny's, 3360 N. Freeway, in
Pueblo. Dickens reportedly gave a $1,000 up-front payment for the killing, a
copy of the insurance policy on her husband, pictures of her husband and the
general layout of their home in Florence.
http://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com/Local/Guard%20pleads%20guilty%20to%20
murder%20charge%203-09-04.htm
"The gravest abuse of power - and the gravest threats to personal liberty and
security - are those in which the very individuals to whom we look for the
preservation of law and order turn out to be the predators."