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| Former COs sentenced in inmate death |
| By The Tennessean |
| Published: 06/19/2006 |
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WILSON COUNTY, TN - A former officer who helped deliver the blows that killed an inmate in the Wilson County Jail was sentenced Friday to serve nine years in a federal prison. Gary Hale was one of three former officer at the jail who was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Todd Campbell. All received leniency for helping to bring down the ringleader of a group of officers who regularly beat the inmates. The reign of brutality at the jail lasted over 18 months, and the federal investigation that followed resulted in eight former officers being convicted of violating inmates' civil rights. John McKinney was sentenced to two years probation for failing to report that an officer had assaulted an inmate. William Westmoreland was sentenced to three years of probation, with the first six months being served on home detention, for his role in a 2001 jailhouse assault. Hale pleaded guilty last year and testified against Patrick Marlowe, the supervisor on the second shift at the Wilson County Jail. During a trial earlier this year, Hale said he and his supervisor took turns beating Walter "Steve" Kuntz before he died. A jury convicted Marlowe of causing Kuntz's death; he could be sentenced to life in prison. Federal prosecutors had asked the judge to give Hale a lighter sentence, but one member of Kuntz's family said the former CO should get life in prison just like Marlowe. "How does one get life and he get a nine-year sentence?" asked Tonya Thompson, Kuntz's sister. "It's kind of unfair if you think they were both equally guilty and they should both equally pay." Hale decided to cooperate because he was facing a life sentence if convicted and because he was remorseful, said his lawyer, Nashville attorney Peter Strianse. |
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