By Joe Dolinsky

The Times Leader

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — Recent claims Jessie Con-ui could have a mental condition will be vetted by federal prosecutors' own experts following a judge's ruling Friday in the convicted killer's upcoming capital murder case.

Federal prosecutors last year announced their intention to seek the death penalty against Con-ui, 39, if he's convicted later this year for the 2013 murder of Corrections Officer Eric Williams, of Nanticoke, inside U.S. Penitentiary at Canaan.

Con-ui, a New Mexican Mafia gang member who was serving life behind bars for murdering a rival gang member in Arizona, killed again when he ambushed Williams and kicked him down a flight of stairs before he beat and stabbed him to death, federal prosecutors allege.

Con-ui's attorneys haven't disputed that Con-ui killed Williams, but are vying to spare him from being put to death.

In laying the groundwork for a defense against the penalty, Con-ui provided notice he'd introduce evidence relating to a potential "mental disease or defect" in November and has since been evaluated by multiple experts, but prosecutors now say they want their own doctors to weigh in.

"In order to independently determine the merits of (Con-ui's) claim, and to prepare for possible rebuttal testimony, the United States needs to have its experts evaluate (Con-ui)," prosecutors said in the federal court motion, granted Friday afternoon by U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo.

Con-ui's trial is slated for April 27 at the federal courthouse in Wilkes-Barre.

Con-ui remains jailed at ADX Florence, a supermaximum federal prison in Colorado.