John Turscak: Former FBI informant accused of stabbing Derek Chauvin in prison pleads not guilty

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA: A former gang leader and former FBI informant entered a not guilty plea on Friday to charges related to stabbing former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin while he was in federal prison.

The Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson, Arizona, is where John Turscak, who is serving a 30-year sentence for crimes he committed while being a member of the Mexican Mafia prison gang, is accused of attacking Chauvin with an improvised knife at approximately 12:30 pm on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.

Two days after the attack on November 24, he was charged with attempted murder, assault with intent to commit murder, assault with a dangerous weapon, and assault resulting in serious bodily injury.

John Turscak accused of stabbing Derek Chauvin

Derek Chauvin is currently serving a sentence of more than two decades in connection with the death of George Floyd. Turscak entered a not-guilty plea during a Friday court appearance.

Turscak is accused of stabbing Chauvin 22 times in the attack that was purportedly motivated by the BLM movement. His jury trial is presently set to start on February 13.

The purported incident took place merely four days after Chauvin's appeal of his murder conviction was denied by the US Supreme Court. Separately, Chauvin is attempting in vain to reverse his guilty plea to the federal government, arguing that fresh evidence disproves his involvement in Floyd's death on May 25, 2020.

"Derek's family confirmed that his medical condition has improved to the extent that he has been removed from the trauma care facility at a local Tucson hospital and returned to prison custody for his follow-up care," stated Chauvin's attorney Gregory Erickson in a statement issued on December 3.

Erickson stated that the family of Chauvin "is very concerned about the facility’s capacity to protect Derek from further harm," as well as that "they remain unassured that any changes have been made to the faulty procedures that allowed Derek’s attack to occur in the first place."

John Turscak admitted to stabbing Derek Chauvin

In an interview with FBI agents following the attack, Turscak claimed to them that he attacked Chauvin on Black Friday in reference to the "Black Hand" symbol linked to the Mexican Mafia and the Black Lives Matter movement, which gained popularity after Floyd's death in 2020 that was captured on camera.

Turscak was transferred to a nearby federal prison in Tucson following the stabbing, according to records cited by the Associated Press in a story published last month.

In August 2022, Chauvin, then 47 years old, was transferred from a maximum-security Minnesota state prison to FCI Tucson to serve a 22½-year state sentence for second-degree murder and a 21-year federal sentence for violating Floyd's civil rights.

At the time, Chauvin's attorney Eric Nelson had argued that his client should be kept apart from the general public and other prisoners because they knew he would be a target.

According to court documents Nelson wrote in 2022, Chauvin was primarily housed in solitary confinement in Minnesota "largely for his own protection."

Under the alias "Stranger," Turscak oversaw a branch of the Mexican Mafia in the Los Angeles region in the late 1990s, according to court documents. In 1997, he turned informant for the FBI, giving details about the gang and recordings of his talks with its associates and members.

Turscak was assisting with an investigation that resulted in over 40 indictments. However, the FBI terminated Turscak's informant status about halfway through because it was purported that he was still supplying drugs, demanding ransom, and approving assaults.

In addition to being targeted himself, Turscak was accused of planning attacks on rival gang members and of trying to assassinate a rival Mexican Mafia faction's leader, according to court documents.

Turscak admitted to racketeering and plotting the assassination of a rival gang member in 2001. He claimed that a reduced sentence would have resulted from his cooperation with the FBI.