Two Montana women who beat up a fellow jail inmate have pleaded guilty to retaliation against a witness. They entered the pleas yesterday in U-S District Court in Great Falls.

U-S District Judge Sam Haddon set a sentencing date of August 24th for 20-year-old Alana Holmgren and 22-year-old Ashley McCormack.

Court records say McCormack and Holmgren entered the cell of another female inmate in the Cascade County jail last September. They then locked the door and punched and kicked her until she bled.

Interviewed later, McCormack and Holmgren said they suspected the woman had given officers McCormack's name, and they went to her cell to confront her.