Accused murderer stabs fellow inmate dozens of times at Rikers Island
An accused murderer stabbed another inmate dozens of times at Rikers Island Tuesday in the latest act of violence at the city lockup, police and sources said.
Phillip Moreno, who is charged with killing a pregnant woman and her boyfriend in Staten Island, allegedly attacked a fellow prisoner with a sharpened piece of metal while they were working in the pantry around 11 a.m., according to cops and the sources.
The inmate who was stabbed suffered serious cuts to his neck, head, arms and hands. He was taken to Elmhurst Hospital where he is recovering.
Sources said the shiv used in the attack was found in a toilet.
“Vicious, violent attacks on individuals in custody will not be tolerated,” Department of Corrections Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie told The Post in a statement. “No one in our jails deserves to be a victim of violence.”
There have been 20 slashings and 13 stabbings at Rikers between Dec. 20 and January 23, according to police data.
A jail source blamed a recent uptick in violence on the council’s ban on solitary confinement in city jails, which Mayor Eric Adams and other law enforcement officials said would lead to violent incidents like Tuesday’s stabbing.
Adams vetoed the bill banning solitary confinement, but the Democrat-led council overrode the veto last week.
“[Public Advocate] Jumaame Williams and [NYC Council Speaker] Adrienne Adams have blood on their hands,” the source said of the two city politicians who sponsored the bill. “Inmates know they’re only going to get a four-hour time out.”
DOC Commissioner Maginley-Liddie said in her statement that the department “will seek attempted murder charges” against Moreno “for this senseless act.”
Moreno was behind bars for allegedly storming into an Arlington home on May 11, 2020 and gunning down Ana Desousa, 33, who was 7-months pregnant, and her partner, Alafia Rodriguez, 46.
A third victim, a 43-year-old woman, was also found in the living room with a gunshot wound to the back, cops said.
Police said the killings were an attempted drug robbery gone bad.
Moreno had been previously arrested in July 1992 for the murder of Theodis Watson on Staten Island, sources said. A year later, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was jailed upstate in Sing Sing. He was paroled in 2007.
He was scheduled to appear in Richmond Supreme Criminal Court on Wednesday in connection to the Staten Island slayings, according to court records.
