Harry James Villa III, 24, a member of the Kerby Blocc Crips, is attacked by fellow inmates in Eastern Oregon Monday, July 19, 1999
One of Portland's most notorious gang members was beaten and later died at the Snake River Correctional Institution in Eastern Oregon, six months after beginning a five-year sentence on racketeering charges.
Harry James Villa III, 24, was pronounced dead on arrival Saturday night at Holy Rosary Hospital in Ontario, said Perrin Damon, a spokeswoman for the Oregon Department of Corrections.
Damon said Villa was assaulted by two other inmates in the recreation yard at the medium-security prison at about 7:05 p.m. He died from a blow to the head with a blunt object.
Names of the two men suspected in the attack were not released, but Lt. Dale Rutledge, spokesman for the Oregon State Police, said both were being held in isolation at the prison. Charges are expected to be filed Monday by Malheur County District Attorney Patricia Sullivan, Rutledge said.
Villa, a member of the Kerby Blocc Crips, was one of six members of the North Portland gang indicted on racketeering charges in May 1998. He was an associate and friend of another well-known gang member, Anthony Branch Jr., whose street name was " 'lil Smurf." Branch was shot dead in the parking lot of a Northeast Portland strip club in October 1997.
"Villa was a very familiar face on the street as a known gang member," said Det. Sgt. Cheryl Kanzler, spokeswoman for the Portland Police Bureau. Villa was known on the street as "Champ."
Villa and four others pleaded guilty to the racketeering charges in October. It was the second time Multnomah County had used the law against street gangs.
The first time prosecutors used the law, 15 members of two Bloods sets -- the Woodlawn Park Bloods and the Locd Out Pirus -- were convicted of racketeering and other crimes in 1995. The average sentence was nearly eight years, ranging from 18 months to 39 years.
Villa was out on bail in January, when he was shot three times in the chest and once in the pelvis during a gang-related dispute at a rap party in an Old Town restaurant; two other people were wounded.
A short time after Villa was shot, Multnomah County Circuit Judge Henry Kantor revoked the release status of Villa and his four co-defendants in the racketeering case and ordered their immediate arrest. Villa entered prison on Feb. 24.
Villa's attorney, Marc Sussman of Portland, said he talked with his client on Thursday.
"I got the sense from him that he was moving on to a new place in his life," Sussman said. "That maybe he had a chance to escape the world of trouble that followed him around. He felt good . . . that he wasn't under the constant threat that he was when he was on the street."
Portland gang member killed in prison
By Stuart Tomlinson of The Oregonian staff
Stuart Tomlinson can be reached by telephone at 503-294-5940, or by e-mail at stuarttomlinson@news.oregonian.com