Man facing more time for prison attack

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — Randall Kose, 28, currently an inmate in one of the state's Department of Correctional facilities, will be in 13th Judicial District Court here Feb. 16 for a plea agreement on an attempted murder case in 2005, said Randolph M. Collins, 13th judicial district deputy district attorney.

Details of the plea are not available until the hearing.

Kose is currently serving a 50-year sentence for a murder which occurred in 1996.

He was originally scheduled for a trial on Feb. 12, in connection with indictments from the 13th Judicial District grand jury on Jan. 12 of: attempted murder, aggravated battery (great bodily harm), conspiracy to murder, tampering with evidence and possession of a deadly weapon by a prisoner. Total prison time for these counts could be as much as 33 years.

The indictments stem from an incident on June 28, 2005 at the Western New Mexico Department of Corrections facility in Grants, when Kose and two other inmates, Christopher Brandenburg and Kenneth Griego attempted to kill Samuel Mascarenas, another inmate, according to the indictment.

Both are members of "Los Canales,"or "The Brotherhood," a prison gang which has chapters in several New Mexico prisons. The attempted murder was about leadership of the local gang, according to court records.

After being transferred to Western from a DOC facility in Santa Fe, Mascarenas was attacked by Kose, who came out of the showers with a "shank," a sharpened piece of metal. Griego then approached Mascarenas from behind and held him while Kose attacked, court records state.

Mascarenas was stabbed about 20 times and was taken to Cibola General Hospital where he was treated and then transferred back to Santa Fe, court records state.

During the incident at Western, Mascarenas got away from the two men and tried running through the pod area while being chased by Kose and Griego. Brandenburg joined the fracas, and it took a few minutes for correctional officers to gather enough forces outside the pod area to enter and stop the attack, according to court records.

Kose and Brandenburg were then transferred to Santa Fe to level six, which is maximum security and all three were separated. Griego is in a different facility, court records state.

Brandenburg has already been in district court in Grants (Nov. 27), where a plea deal differed between the prosecution and defense attorneys.

Collins asked for three to seven years for the 2005 attempted murder plus two years probation and five years parole. Defense attorney John Bezzeg asked for three years or less years prison time. The plea deal was before 13th Judicial District Judge Camille Martinez-Olguin.

Martinez-Olguin did not announce the terms of the agreement in court and sealed Brandenburg's and Griego's records.

To contact reporter Jim Tiffin, call (505) 287-2197 or e-mail: jtiffin.independent@yahoo.com.