A Pennsylvania appeals court upheld a prisoner’s conviction for his involvement in an attack on a fellow inmate in an attempt to steal contraband tobacco the man hid in his rectum.
Maurice Wakefield II received a 9- to 18-year sentence for his role in the March 2017 attack at the Blair County Prison in Hollidaysburg, a town about 60 miles east of Pittsburgh.
Wakefield and several other inmates knew another prisoner had tobacco in a plastic bag inside his rectum and demanded he turn it over.
The prisoner attempted to comply but couldn’t pass the bag naturally, so Wakefield and his cohorts attempted to remove the tobacco by force.
The gang used two toothbrushes without success, and only left the other prisoner battered and bloodied.
Eventually, the man was able to pass the package and he turned it over to his attackers. He then told police what happened, despite being threatened.
Wakefield was convicted of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, conspiracy, aggravated assault, assault by a prisoner, making terroristic threats, unlawful restraint, simple assault and reckless endangerment in April 2018.
In his appeal, the judge rejected Wakefield’s argument that the jury should not have been shown prison surveillance footage of the gang attacking the victim’s cellmate under the belief the cellmate was hiding the contraband tobacco.
