Nagle's Killer Gets Death

A Texas jury recently convicted an inmate for the 1999 killing of CO Daniel Nagle, president of Local 3890 (Council 7). Robert Lynn Pruett, who was already incarcerated for murder, stabbed the 37-year-old Nagle and now faces the death penalty.

On Dec. 17, 1999, Nagle's body was found minutes before his shift ended at the McConnell prison unit in Beeville. He was apparently knifed with a crudely sharpened metal rod.

Given the chance to convince jurors to spare his life, Pruett told them: "I don't care what y'all do. I'm gonna die in prison anyway."

Prosecutors believe the attack stemmed from an altercation over recreation-yard rules. "Grasping at straws," in the words of the senior warden at the prison, the defense claimed that security cameras and more COs at the facility could have prevented the murder.

Nagle will long be remembered as an advocate for improvements in Texas prisons. He left a wife and three young children. At the ACU Congress, Pres. Gerald W. McEntee announced that AFSCME would pay the college costs for Nagle's two sons and daughter.