City News Service
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KESQ) – A felon who seriously assaulted and threatened the life of a fellow inmate at a Riverside County jail because the woman refused to smuggle drugs into the facility was sentenced today to seven years, eight months in state prison.
A Riverside jury in April convicted 35-year-old Cassandra Othelia Hoskins of assault with a deadly weapon, as well as one count each of sexual penetration with a foreign object, sexual assault on an unconscious person, making criminal threats and non-felonious assault.
During a hearing at the Riverside Hall of Justice Friday, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Sam Shouka imposed the sentence prescribed by law for the offenses.
Hoskins’ co-defendants, 41-year-old June Alejo and 61-year-old Tamra Elayne Chavez, reached plea deals prior to the start of trial in March. Alejo admitted assault resulting in great bodily injury, and Chavez pleaded no contest to the same charge.
Alejo was sentenced in April to three years in prison. Chavez, who is being held in lieu of $145,000 bail at an out-of-state correctional facility, is due for sentencing on June 27.
The case goes back to 2017, when Hoskins was housed at the former Indio Jail, later shuttered after completion of the Benoit Detention Center.
According to a trial brief filed by the District Attorney’s Office, Hoskins, who went by the moniker “Tank Boss,” oversaw a drug smuggling ring, involving heroin and other narcotics. One of her tactics was to arrange with contacts on the outside to hide drugs in locations where inmates could access them, including JFK Memorial Hospital in Indio, to which injured inmates were taken for treatment.
The female detainees would procure the contraband, conceal it, and return to jail with the packets without being screened by staff, enabling Hoskins to acquire the drugs for distribution and sale, according to the brief.
On Oct. 9, 2017, the defendant approached an inmate identified only as “Jane Doe” to make a hospital run to procure narcotics hidden in a bathroom stall. The victim, out of fear, accepted and allowed Hoskins to slice the top of her head with a razor, making it appear as if she had been injured falling out of her upper bunk bed, court papers said.
The victim went to the hospital for treatment and found the drugs but panicked, flushing the contraband down the toilet instead of concealing it for movement to the jail.
“When she returned from the hospital two days later, on Oct. 11, Jane Doe told Hoskins she couldn’t do it, referring to bringing the drugs back from the hospital,” the brief stated. “Later in the day, Hoskins confronted Jane Doe about the drugs. Hoskins indicated she spoke to her sister, who had confirmed the drugs had been placed in the bathroom prior to Jane Doe’s arrival there.”
The confrontation ended without a physical clash, but the next day, Chavez sought out Jane Doe, telling her to meet Hoskins in the showers of Housing Unit 11. The woman went and encountered an “angry” Hoskins, who “picked Jane Doe up with both hands by the throat and slammed her head against the shower wall, causing her to lose consciousness,” the prosecution said.
When the victim came to, she found her pants pulled down below her knees and Hoskins “digging through her vagina with a plastic spoon,” apparently convinced the woman had been lying and returned to jail with the drugs for herself, according to the brief.
When the victim was able to wriggle free and get back to her feet, Alejo entered and, at Hoskins’ direction, started punching Jane Doe in the head. The beating ended after a minute, and Alejo then went to the victim’s jail cell and threw her belongings into a corridor, the brief said.
“Hoskins then told Jane Doe that she was going to find her and kill her wherever she went,” court papers said. “Hoskins said she would find Jane Doe’s children, kill them and skin their heads if Hoskins’ house got raided by law enforcement.”
Deputies intervened and took the victim to the hospital, where doctors confirmed injuries consistent with an assault on her privates and head.
Court records show Hoskins has a range of convictions going back to 2008, including for assault and drug smuggling.
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