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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Luzerne County corrections officer Kristopher Moules and inmate Timothy Darnelle Gilliam Jr. smashed through a closed elevator door at the county prison and fell several floors down the elevator shaft to their deaths Monday night, county Manager C. David Pedri said Tuesday.</p><p>Describing the situation as a &#8220;freak accident,&#8221; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Ftimesleader%2Fvideos%2F10154211272222040%2F&amp;show_text=0&amp;width=400" target="_blank">Pedri said at a news conference</a> that &#8220;something happened&#8221; to cause the door to jump off its track and open. He said the county has retained a state expert to identify the problem, and he promised to publicly release the expert&#8217;s findings and implement any recommended corrective action.</p><p>Pedri said the elevator had a valid inspection certificate, and the state Department of Labor and Industry conducted an inspection of the elevator in April and found only a minor &#8220;housekeeping&#8221; deficiency that was corrected by staff. An outside contractor also completed a load test of the elevator on July 14, Pedri said.</p><p>State labor department spokeswoman Sara Goulet said Tuesday that elevators are inspected every six months. These inspections include a comprehensive examination of all elevator equipment and operating components, she said, declining to comment on the ongoing county investigation.</p><p>Pedri said the prison&#8217;s internal investigation showed Gilliam was on the fifth floor of the facility Monday and was not restrained when he and Moules briefly exchanged words before a &#8220;brief altercation&#8221; ensued.</p><p>The altercation lasted seconds and spilled out into a common area near an elevator, he said.</p><p>Moules was alone on the fifth floor of the five-story facility, except for another corrections officer in the security shack, Pedri said. Guards on other floors were summoned to assist in an &#8220;all available alarm,&#8221; and another guard arrived within seconds.</p><p>As the two guards tried to detain Gilliam, Gilliam and Moules crashed through the elevator door into the shaft, Pedri said. The other guard, who was not named, also came &#8220;very close&#8221; to falling into the shaft.</p><p>Prison officials have reviewed video recordings of the incident, Pedri said, adding: &#8220;It&#8217;s clear that Mr. Moules did nothing wrong. His actions were heroic.&#8221;</p><p>County Coroner William Lisman said Moules, 25, of Larksville, was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. by a doctor at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital.</p><p>An autopsy performed Tuesday morning concluded Moules died of multiple traumatic injuries due to a fall, Lisman said. He said the manner of death will be determined soon pending further review.</p><p>Gilliam, 27, originally from New York, was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. at Wilkes-Barre General and also died from multiple traumatic injuries due to a fall based on an autopsy performed Tuesday, Lisman said. The manner of death has been ruled accidental, he said.</p><p>The prison, which employs about 300 people and usually is filled to its 505-inmate capacity, will remain on lockdown until the investigation is complete, which means inmates must remain in their cells 23 hours a day, Pedri said.</p><p>The elevator involved in the death &#8212; one of two in the facility &#8212; has been blocked off and shut down, he said.</p><p>County flags are flying at half-staff.</p><p>&#8220;This is a tragic day in Luzerne County,&#8221; Pedri said. &#8220;It is our duty now as county administrators to make sure that his name and the lessons learned from this matter are never forgotten.&#8221;</p><p>State police and the county District Attorney&#8217;s Office continue to investigate the matter.</p><p>Pedri said he doesn&#8217;t know what caused the altercation, but that might be part of the criminal investigation. It does not appear other inmates were involved, he said.</p><p>The elevator car was rising when Moules and Gilliam landed on its roof, but the exact distance the two men fell won&#8217;t be known until the criminal investigation is completed, Pedri said.</p><p><strong>&#8220;Outstanding leader&#8221; lost</strong></p><p>Moules was hired as a guard at the prison, formally known as the Luzerne County Correctional Facility, on Sept. 14 at a salary of $31,745, county records show.</p><p>Pedri said Moules was just beginning his career and was proud of his new job. His eventual goal was to become a state trooper.</p><p>Several prison guards said they mourned the death of Moules on Tuesday, although they were reluctant to publicly identify themselves. They called for additional staffing, saying Moules did not have sufficient back-up on his floor.</p><p>Thomas Borum, business manager of LIUNA Local 1310, which represents the county&#8217;s unionized prison guards, is not commenting at this time, a representative of his office said.</p><p>&#8220;This is a terrible tragedy. Today we lost a brother,&#8221; one prison guard said Tuesday. &#8220;That prison is out of control. That officer was a young, handsome man that had his whole life to live.&#8221;</p><p>A Wyoming Valley West graduate, Moules majored in criminal justice at Youngstown State University in Ohio, according to an online Youngstown posting.</p><p>The Youngstown biography outlined the baseball career of Moules, who is the son of Kenneth and Catherine Moules, both of Larksville.</p><p>In high school, Moules was a two-time Wyoming Valley Conference All Star and also was a two-time all-conference pick in soccer. He also played baseball at Lackawanna College before joining Youngstown State as a junior in 2013, the posting said.</p><p>The Lackawanna College Baseball program posted condolences to Moules&#8217; family Tuesday afternoon on the program&#8217;s Facebook site.</p><p>True Blue Warriors, which honors fallen law enforcement officers, also posted a memorial tribute to Moules on Facebook.</p><p>State Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Lehman Township, posted condolences, saying she knew Moules through Falcons Baseball at Lackawanna College.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m just so devastated and heartbroken for his family,&#8221; she said. &#8220;We lost an outstanding leader and positive role model.&#8221;</p><p>Her son, Carson, was Moules&#8217; roommate at Lackawanna College. Carson said his &#8220;heart sunk&#8221; when word of his friend&#8217;s death reached him Monday evening.</p><p>The two were teammates on a Falcons team that reached the Junior College World Series. Baker said he&#8217;ll cherish a lasting image of Moules, a first baseman, running off the field with his hands above his head after the team advanced to the Series in 2012.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not fair to have somebody as great as Moules go so soon,&#8221; said Baker, 24. &#8220;Our team was a brotherhood, and he was front and center in that brotherhood.&#8221;</p><p>Baker said Moules&#8217; personality was &#8220;100 percent&#8221; suited for his job at the prison.</p><p>&#8220;He was a fierce competitor on the field. He gave it his all. He also had that calming effect on all of us off the field,&#8221; Baker said.</p><p>A representative of Moules&#8217; family declined comment Tuesday evening.</p><p>&#8220;These are good people. They&#8217;re shocked. They&#8217;re proud of their son,&#8221; Pedri said.</p><p><strong>Troubled past</strong></p><p>Gilliam had a lengthy criminal history, including a guilty plea to charges he fought off police while clutching an infant he abducted from a Sherman Hills apartment.</p><p>A search of Luzerne County Court records and criminal docket sheets shows Gilliam &#8212; last known address of South Main Street, Wilkes-Barre &#8212; had pleaded guilty to sexual assault, interference with custody of children, simple assault, endangering the welfare of children, and resisting arrest since 2007.</p><p>Police said Gilliam was under the influence of synthetic drugs and was acting &#8220;extremely bizarre&#8221; when city officers in October 2011 found him on Northampton Street, holding the 14-month-old infant in his arms and cursing at people walking by.</p><p>Officers attempted to pry the infant from Gilliam&#8217;s arms and subdue him, but Gilliam fought back and had to be hit with a Taser at least three times, according to a criminal complaint. Court records show Luzerne County Judge Fred A. Pierantoni III sentenced him to 10 to 23 months in county prison for the offense.</p><p>A month before the incident, Gilliam allegedly punched and kicked his then-girlfriend inside an apartment at 320 North Empire Court in Wilkes-Barre. He was sentenced to 12 months&#8217; probation on a misdemeanor simple assault charge.</p><p>In 2007, Gilliam was charged with two counts of rape and one count each of statutory sexual assault, sexual assault and corruption of minors after police said he raped a 14-year-old girl. According to a criminal complaint, Gilliam raped the girl while she was sleeping inside a residence on Dougher Lane on Nov. 4, 2007.</p><p>The girl told police she was inside the residence with Gilliam and two other people who fell asleep in a second-floor bedroom. The girl said she fell asleep on a couch and was awakened by Gilliam, who was sexually assaulting her, the criminal complaint says.</p><p>He pleaded guilty the following year and was sentenced to six to 18 months in prison by former county judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr.</p><p>Records further show Gilliam was charged this past March with failure to register as a sex offender with Pennsylvania State Police.</p><p>Arrest papers filed in February say the building Gilliam most recently listed as his home address, 425 S. Main St., had been a furniture store for nearly a year. He was charged for failing to notify authorities he changed his address, and his next court date was scheduled for September.</p><p>While incarcerated at the county prison in 2014, Gilliam filed a federal lawsuit against two guards alleging mistreatment. He claimed in the complaint he was mocked for his religious beliefs and that guards failed to do anything about two inmates he claimed were beaten.</p><p>The lawsuit, in which Gilliam represented himself, was dismissed a month later after Gilliam failed to pay the $400 filing fee, court records show.</p><p><strong>New prison</strong></p><p>Pedri said the incident has prompted him to step up a push to build a new prison to replace the aging structure and pledged the new prison will be named after Moules.</p><p>The county council has not actively revived past discussions about a new prison because they face $351 million in outstanding debt repayments.</p><p>About $1.3 million was spent years ago designing a new county prison that never materialized. A temporary inmate population decrease, concerns about finding suitable location with proper zoning, and challenges of borrowing up to $100 million prompted county officials to scrap the idea.</p><p>The prison has a choppy layout due to its age and design. Inmates are housed either in the original castle-like building, constructed in 1868, or in the multistory addition that was built in 1987. The interior of the original building was renovated when the addition was built.</p><p>The two deaths occurred in the addition, commonly known as &#8220;the tower.&#8221;</p><p>Pedri advocates a single-story, spoke-and-wheel prison design, which was promoted in the past, allowing a central hub that requires fewer staff to monitor inmates.</p><p>&#8220;In effect, we now have seven separate prisons that we have to staff,&#8221; he said, referring to the tower design.</p><p>While some guards have complained the county administration has not addressed security concerns, Pedri said his phone was ringing frequently with calls from corrections officers Tuesday who pledged their full support to working cooperatively on fixing problems.</p><p>These &#8220;brave men and women&#8221; are tense and expect the county to do better, Pedri said.</p><p>&#8220;I will stand with the corrections officers because we&#8217;re in the same side on this. Safety is paramount first before anything else,&#8221; he said.</p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Prison-Timeline-Box-8.pdf">
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<div class="neCaption">Moules </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/web1_MoulesMug-14.jpg</photo1><caption1>Moules </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/web1_IMG_7493-11.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Gilliam </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/web1_IMG_7493-11.jpg</photo2><caption2>Gilliam </caption2><photoCredit2></photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/web1_prison-14.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Luzerne County Manager C. David Pedri said a state expert will investigate why a guard and inmate crashed through an elevator door during an incident Monday at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/web1_prison-14.jpg</photo3><caption3>Luzerne County Manager C. David Pedri said a state expert will investigate why a guard and inmate crashed through an elevator door during an incident Monday at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility. </caption3><photoCredit3>Geri Gibbons | Times Leader </photoCredit3></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/web1_TTL072016media-briefing1-8.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Luzerne County Manager David Pedri talks to the media during a Tuesday evening briefing on the deaths of a corrections officer and a prisoner at the Luzerne County prison. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo4>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/web1_TTL072016media-briefing1-8.jpg</photo4><caption4>Luzerne County Manager David Pedri talks to the media during a Tuesday evening briefing on the deaths of a corrections officer and a prisoner at the Luzerne County prison. </caption4><photoCredit4>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit4></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/web1_TTL072016Prison1-8.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">The flag at the Luzerne County prison flies at half-staff for corrections officer Kristopher Moules, who died Monday night following an altercation with an inmate. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo5>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/web1_TTL072016Prison1-8.jpg</photo5><caption5>The flag at the Luzerne County prison flies at half-staff for corrections officer Kristopher Moules, who died Monday night following an altercation with an inmate. </caption5><photoCredit5>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit5></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Guard, inmate crashed through elevator door</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jennifer Learn-Andes</p><p>jandes@www.timesleader.com and Joe Dolinsky</p><p>jdolinsky@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes. Reach Joe Dolinsky at 570-991-6110 or on Twitter @JoeDolinskyTL.</p></shirttailMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"></div>

Officials: Luzerne County prison guard, inmate fell to their deaths