Wesley Correa-Carmenaty

The man accused of murdering a Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Deputy will be held in the Woodbury County Jail.

Sheriff Dave Drew confirms that Wesley Correa-Carmenaty is being transferred to the jail after waiving extradition to Iowa in an Omaha court hearing Thursday. Drew says it makes sense to transfer the prisoner away from the jail where he allegedly fatally shot Deputy Mark Burbridge and wounded Deputy Pat Morgan during his escape.

“It’s obviously a smart thing to, that way he is not housed in their facility,” Drew says. The Woodbury County attorney had indicated they would seek to put Correa-Cermenaty in a different jail just to avoid any liability if he claimed retaliation by Pottawattamie County employees. The county attorney said the concern was finding a jail that could handle a high-risk inmate. Sheriff Drew says his jailers are well prepared.

“We a risk team. That group of individuals on the risk team deal with high risk inmates, de-escalation of incidents and cell extractions, and different things like that,” Drew explains. The lead prosecutor for Pottawattamie County says they will likely wait until after the slain deputy’s funeral on Monday to retrieve Correa-Carmenaty from Nebraska.

(Reporting by Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City)