Two federal inmates were sentenced to decades behind bars for killing a fellow inmate in a racially-motivated attack, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Donald R. LaFond Jr. was sentenced today to life in prison and Jason Robert Widdison was sentenced to 31 years and eight months in federal prison for killing a fellow inmate at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta, U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates' office said. Both defendants were convicted in February of second-degree murder in the death of the inmate, whose name was not released, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported.
“These defendants, members of a white supremacist prison gang, brutally murdered another inmate for not objecting to having an African-American cellmate,” Yates said in an emailed statement. “Whether racially-motivated violence occurs on our streets or in our prisons, we will hold the perpetrators accountable.”
LaFond and Widdison were exercising on March 1, 2011, when another inmate joined them and attempted to talk to them, Yates’ office said.
Minutes later, LaFond and Widdison began to punch the victim from both front and behind, knocking the victim to the ground, according to witnesses. Both LaFond and Widdison then stomped on the victim’s head and neck, as many as 10 times each, investigators said.
Corrections officers witnessed the incident and intervened, and LaFond and Widdison stopped the attack, but by then, the victim was unconscious. The victim was transported to the hospital, but never regained consciousness and died April 5, 2011.
According to evidence presented during the weeklong trial, LaFond, of New Bedford, Mass., and Widdison, of Morgan, Utah, pressured the victim, who was white and not a gang member, to take any steps necessary to be reassigned to another cell. The inmate’s refusal to comply with LaFond and Widdison violated the prison gang code, Yates said.
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