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Florida prison workers accused of plotting to kill inmate

This arrest photo provided by the Union County, Fla., Sheriff's Office, shows Thomas Jordan Driver. Driver, a prison employee, who together with another current employee of the Florida Dept. of Corrections and a former employee were arrested Thursday, April 2, 2015. The three, who are Ku Klux Klan members, planned to kill a black inmate after his release in retaliation for a fight, officials said. (AP Photo/Union County, Fla., Sheriff's Office) This arrest photo provided by the Union County, Fla., Sheriff's Office, shows Thomas Jordan Driver. Driver, a prison employee, who together with another current employee of the Florida Dept. of Corrections and a former employee were arrested Thursday, April 2, 2015. The three, who are Ku Klux Klan members, planned to kill a black inmate after his release in retaliation for a fight, officials said. (AP Photo/Union County, Fla., Sheriff's Office)

By Associated Press April 2, 2015 4 min read

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) – Three Ku Klux Klan members who worked at a Florida prison have been charged with plotting to kill a black inmate after his release because they believed the man is infected with HIV and hepatitis and he bit one of them during a fight, officials said Thursday.

The case comes as the latest black eye for the troubled state prison system.

The three men – Thomas Jordan Driver, 25, David Elliot Moran, 47, and Charles Thomas Newcomb, 42 – were arrested Thursday and each faces one state count of conspiracy to commit murder, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office said in a written statement.

The state said the murder plot started after Driver, an officer at the Department of Corrections Reception and Medical Center in rural north Florida, had a fight with the inmate.

Moran is currently a sergeant at that facility. Newcomb was fired in 2013 for failing to meet training requirements, according to the department.