by Sabrina Salas Matanane, KUAM News Thursday, June 26, 2008 Subscribe to Sabrina's newsfeed   E-mail this article Printable version KUAM Toolbar Web Widgets Get RSS headlines

Two men who have been incarcerated at the U.S. Penitentiary Atwater in California face additional murder charges as they're accused of stabbing a Bureau of Prisons Officer to death. According to the Department of Corrections, James Leon Guerrero, a federal inmate from Guam, is behind bars after he was convicted for the Family Finance armed robbery in the early 80's. Leon Guerrero was implicated along with three other men for the murder of Department of Corrections Officer Douglas Mashburn who was killed at the Mangilao compound. Only Alexander Kitano and Jose Baza were convicted for Mashburn's murder though.

Joseph Cabrera Sablan, a local inmate from Saipan, is behind bars for the aggravated murder of Julienne Sablan and the attempted murder of Jackie Salas who was 14 at the time. Both Leon Guerrero and Sablan are accused of stabbing Bureau of Prisons Correctional Officer, Jose Rivera on Friday, June 20 with a homemade shank in a housing unit at USP Atwater.

DepCor Director Jose Palacios confirmed with KUAM that the two men were sent off island due to violent behavior at the correctional facility here on island. Both were participating in some sort of rehabilitative program offered by the Bureau of Prisons.

Palacios added the two will remain in federal prison in the Mainland and not return back to the island.