6 County Jail Inmates Hurt in 2 Incidents

Five inmates were injured in a fight at Orange County Jail Sunday afternoon, and 20 minutes later, a prisoner charged with murder was stabbed several times in a shower area of the jail’s maximum-security section, a sheriff’s spokesman said.

Officials said the two incidents were not related, and only the stabbing victim required hospitalization.

The spokesman, Lt. Dick Olson, said the fight broke out about 5 p.m. and involved at least five inmates in a 24-man dormitory. But none of the inmates were willing to give information about the incident, he said.

“As is usually the case, nobody seemed to know what happened, why it happened or how it happened,” Olson said.

Four of the inmates were taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange for treatment and returned to the jail. They were: Steven Payne, who had a cut on the forehead; Rex Loggans, who had a broken jaw; James Hogan, who had a back injury, and Robin Vasquez, who had a possible broken right wrist and a swollen left eye.

Injured Right Hand

The fifth inmate, Lawrence Jaffee, was treated by the jail medical staff for an injured right hand.

About 5:20 p.m. Ray Anthony Pina, 23, was stabbed several times in the back and upper left arm in the shower area in a section of the jail reserved for serious offenders and problem inmates, Olson said.

Pina’s injuries were “puncture-type” wounds, Olson said. However, he declined to disclose additional details of the incident and would not say if investigators had a suspect.

A UCI spokeswoman said Pina was in stable condition Monday.

Pina is awaiting trial on charges of murder, attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon in connection with a Sept. 8, 1984, shoot-out between rival street gangs in Santa Ana in which two men were killed.

Olson said Pina is expected to have recovered from his wounds when his trial is scheduled to begin on Dec. 13.