Jackson Free Press

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — An inmate suspected of participating in the fatal beating of a guard during a prison riot in Mississippi last year has pleaded guilty to rioting.

Prosecutors say Marco Perez-Serrano, also known as Jesus Fernando Ochoa, was the first inmate to attack correction officer Catlin Carithers during the riot at the privately run Adams County Correctional Facility in Natchez on May 20, 2012.

Carithers died and 20 people were injured. The riot involved hundreds of inmates.

Perez-Serrano pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Natchez. He faces up to 10 years in prison at sentencing on Nov. 19.

Several other inmates have been charged with participating in the riot.

The prison holds nearly 2,500 inmates, most of them convicted on charges of returning to the U.S. after deportation for being in the country illegally. The prison is owned by Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America, one of the nation's largest private prison companies.

An FBI affidavit filed in the case said inmates stacked food service carts from the kitchen and climbed on to a roof where Carithers was stationed with another guard.

The affidavit says Perez-Serrano was the first person seen attacking Carithers when he hit him with a food tray. After other inmates joined in the attack on Carithers, Perez-Serrano was seen hitting another guard with the tray, according to the affidavit.

The inmates used keys they took from the guards to get into secured prison areas where more correction officers were attacked, according to the affidavit. Perez-Serrano also was seen destroying prison property, including a surveillance camera, and fought with members of the special response teams that responded to the riot, authorities say.

The FBI has said in court records that the riot was started by a group of Mexican inmates, known as Paisas, who were angry about what they considered poor food and medical care and disrespectful guards. Paisas are a loosely affiliated group within the prison, without ties to organized gangs, the FBI has said.

It took hours for authorities to control the riot, which caused an estimated $1.3 million in damage.

The prison's special response team and the Mississippi Highway Patrol's SWAT team worked to end the riot while state and area law enforcement officers, some from neighboring Louisiana, helped secure the outside.