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| Men who tried to escape jail get sentences |
| By Richmond Times Dispatch |
| Published: 07/04/2005 |
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Four men who took part in a jailbreak attempt that seriously injured two correctional officers, will spend 10 to 30 years in prison, a judge ordered last Tuesday. Judge James E. Kulp decided to stick with punishments a jury recommended in March for Antinne Anderson, who received 13 years; Michael A. Carpenter, who received 30; and Timothy Wayne Mawyer, who received 10 years behind bars. The judge added two more years to the 15 requested by prosecutors for Victor Alfonso Becerra, who pleaded guilty to his role in the melee. "I think they were appropriate," former correctional Officer Joseph Woodson said of the sentences. Woodson, 27, was one of two officers injured in the Aug. 14 escape attempt at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail in Virginia. He remains an employee of the jail, but has taken a job as an instructor at the local police academy. Woodson testified that he has had trouble reading to his 3-year-old son because the head injury he suffered causes him to confuse words. Still suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and post-concussion syndrome, Woodson sees a psychiatrist regularly. The jail staff has been supportive, Woodson said, adding that he has not abandoned the idea of one day returning to his post inside the facility. Woodson was captured by the inmates while making regular morning rounds. One of them struck the officer in the head, knocking him unconscious. Meanwhile, Officer Harold Terry had been beaten, hog-tied and stuffed under a bunk in one of the inmate's cells. The 74-year-old officer suffered a broken bone in his back. When he regained consciousness, Woodson talked the inmates into releasing Terry. Ultimately, three large inmates who had been freed during the standoff stormed into the cell where Woodson was being held and led him to safety. The defendants had planned to escape through windows, but could find no way through the metal bars covering them. In negotiations with police during the four-hour standoff, the inmates requested cigarettes and interviews with television reporters. Anderson and Carpenter were convicted of attempted escape, two counts of assault and one count of abduction. Mawyer was found guilty of one count each of abducting and assaulting a correctional officer. Becerra pleaded guilty to attempted escape and two counts each of abduction and assault of a correctional officer. Another inmate, Christopher O'Brien Cobourne, was given a six-month sentence after pleading guilty to misdemeanor aiding and abetting. Clayton Thomas Dudley, also charged in the attempted jailbreak, is scheduled to go to trial Aug. 16. |
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