PREVIOUSLY:

# # #

Two inmates accused of beating up a correctional officer they lured into their cell are scheduled for jury trial next month.

This morning Judge John Feeney set an Oct. 30 trial date for Lorence Emmanuel Bailey and Jonah Dale Little, charged with attacking Officer Dillon Huffman on Aug. 9 after asking him to come and see artwork in their cell. A jail video shows both men pummeling Huffman with their fists as he backed away. He ended up with black eyes, a bloody nose and lumps on the back of his head.

Bailey, 24, and Little, 21, were held to answer at a preliminary hearing Aug. 27 and were arraigned this morning on charges of assault on a correctional officer with intent to commit great bodily injury, battery upon a correctional officer and resisting an officer. Both also are charged with the special allegation that they have previously been convicted of serious felonies.

Attorneys David Celli for Bailey and Conflict Counsel Kaleb Cockrum for Little entered not guilty pleas on their behalf.

According to Officer Huffman’s testimony during the preliminary hearing, he’d had no previous conflicts with the men. And he had been in their cell earlier the same week to fix their clogged toilet.

Bailey is already facing life in prison if convicted of the November 2016 murder of 50-year-old Cheryl Bussell in Hoopa. His next hearing in that case is set for Wednesday morning. Little is in custody for allegedly violating probation after a conviction for burglary.