FRESNO, Calif. — A federal jury has found Jonathan Mota, 37, guilty of attempting to kill a federal correctional officer in a savage 2017 attack at the Atwater penitentiary. The verdict, delivered Tuesday after a four-day trial, marks a pivotal moment in a case that exposed the deadly risks correctional staff face behind bars. Dominic Adams, 27, was convicted of assaulting the same officer during the coordinated assault.
The attack unfolded on October 6, 2017, when Mota, Adams, and four other inmates launched a brutal ambush on a Bureau of Prisons officer who was working as a teacher inside the facility. According to court evidence, the officer was making copies in a workroom when Mota and Eric Chiago, 28, entered and repeatedly stabbed him with homemade weapons. The victim, already bleeding and disoriented, managed to flee — only to be hunted down in the hallway.
Outside the copy room, William Roe Acevedo, 33; Michael Martin, 30; Joey Thomas, 26; and Adams had taken position as lookouts. When the officer broke free and ran, all six inmates tackled him, wrestled him to the floor, and unleashed a hail of kicks, punches, and stabbings. Adams and Thomas didn’t stop there — they attacked a responding officer who arrived to intervene, escalating the violence in the chaotic prison corridors.
Chiago, Acevedo, Martin, and Thomas previously pleaded guilty to aggravated assault. Sentences were handed down: Chiago received 15 years and eight months; Acevedo, 13 years; Martin, 12 years and six months; and Thomas, eight years and one month. Their cooperation and guilty pleas preceded the trial of Mota and Adams, who chose to fight the charges in court — a decision that ended in conviction.
The FBI and Federal Bureau of Prisons led a joint investigation into the assault, peeling back layers of inmate coordination and prison security failures. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Brian K. Delaney and Kirk E. Sherriff prosecuted the case with a no-nonsense approach, emphasizing the premeditated nature of the attack and the lasting trauma inflicted on the victim, who survived but bears physical and psychological scars.
Mota and Adams now face justice at the federal level. Sentencing is scheduled for July 29 before U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. O’Neill. Both men are exposed to a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. While the statutory cap looms, the actual sentence will hinge on federal guidelines and judicial discretion. One thing is certain: the violence that erupted in Atwater won’t be forgotten by the officers who live it or the courts that answer it.
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Key Facts
- State: California
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Violent Crime
- Source: Official Source ↗
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