Inmate pleads guilty to assaulting correctional officer, gets 20 years

FLORIDA – A inmate in Florida has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to assaulting a federal correctional officer, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida (USAO) has announced.

According to the USAO, Senior United States District Judge Gregory A. Presnell sentenced John Jones, 56, of the District of Columbia, for assaulting a federal correctional officer with a deadly weapon and possessing contraband in a federal penitentiary.

The sentence was imposed consecutively to the life sentence Jones is currently serving for two first-degree murder convictions from the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, the USAO said.

Jones pleaded guilty on September 6, 2022.

According to the court documents, Jones was an inmate in the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex in Sumter County, Florida, serving a life sentence for two first-degree murder convictions.

“On September 5, 2021, Jones stabbed his cellmate in the shoulder and left arm using a six-and-a-half-inch bladed weapon. When a correctional officer responded to the attack, Jones lunged at the officer multiple times with his right arm extended and clutching his weapon. Jones later admitted that he intended to kill his cellmate, stating that he was aiming for his cellmate’s jugular vein,” the USAO said.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Hannah Nowalk.