Convicted child killer Nathan Shaw was already set to spend the rest of his natural life behind bars in a state penitentiary.
\nFriday, a jury added to that sentence, finding him guilty on several criminal counts, stemming from an assault on a prison guard that took place at the Blair County Prison while he awaited trial for murdering a young Tyrone boy.
\nThe verdict was rendered just over three hours after the jury of 12 entered deliberations.
\n\u201cThis is what we wanted,\u201d said Blair County District Attorney Richard Consiglio following the verdict that could add another 10-20 years to Shaw\u2019s already lifelong sentence. \u201cWe wanted justice for Officer (Robert) Miller and to send a message that these types of attacks in prison will not be tolerated.
\n\u201cWe got the aggravated assault conviction we were looking for.\u201d
\nShaw, 27, formerly of Tyrone, was convicted Friday of one felony count of aggravated assault for causing \u201cbodily injury\u201d to county prison corrections officer Miller, along with several other counts, including a felony count of assault by a prisoner, one count of simple assault, one count of reckless endangerment, one count of harassment and four counts of disorderly conduct. The two felony charges, according to Consiglio, each carry a maximum sentence of 5-10 years.
\nShaw was one of three who testified in the second day of his two-day trial. The prosecution wrapped its case first thing with another medical expert who examined Miller following his beating.
\nShaw was the key witness for the defense, and he gave an account of the Sept. 11, 2006, brawl on \u201cC Block\u201d that contradicted just about everything Officer Miller and roughly 10 other witnesses testified to the day before.
\n\u201cI was there (Blair County Prison) for eight months,\u201d Shaw said. \u201cI got along with almost every CO (corrections officer) there, but Officer Miller and a few other guards made it rough on me.
\n\u201cThey called me names and made things hard to deal with; it was a rough eight months.\u201d
\nShaw said on the day of the incident, he had been asking \u201call day long\u201d for a mop to clean up his cell, the floor of which he said was covered with water after some plumbing work had been performed. He said his requests for a mop were repeatedly ignored and that he had \u201ctapped on the glass\u201d separating C Block from the vestibule where Miller was stationed to try to raise his attention.
\nThursday, Miller and two other guards on duty that day testified that Shaw was unruly, was screaming obscenities and was pounding on the glass with a plastic cup, even after he was told to be patient and that he would be provided a mop.
\nShaw went on to say that Miller, who Shaw accused of bullying him during his stay at Blair County Prison, became irate and entered the cell block, \u201cshoving\u201d Shaw toward his cell.
\n\u201cI became upset,\u201d Shaw said. \u201cI figure, if someone pushes me, that gives me the right to respond.
\n\u201cI told him to keep his hands off of me but he kept coming at me. I shouldn\u2019t have, but I turned around and punched him.
\n\u201cI thought he was gonna beat me up.\u201d
\nShaw said that was the only time he struck Officer Miller, stating that he \u201cdid whatever could be done\u201d to protect his face from multiple blows being delivered by Miller. Testimony given by witnesses during Thursday\u2019s court session was contradictory to Shaw\u2019s account. Those who saw the attack, including Miller, stated that the security guard continued to try and restrain Shaw while the inmate punched Miller over and over.
\nAt one point, Shaw said that Miller \u201cfell into the steel bars of a cell\u201d which probably caused the injuries to his face and nose. Expert testimony from two doctors who treated Miller suggested that Miller\u2019s severely broken nose and lacerated head were the result of \u201cmultiple blows, most likely punches.\u201d
\n\u201cI never intended for that to happen,\u201d Shaw said of Miller\u2019s extensive injuries, a remark eerily reminiscent of testimony he delivered during his January murder trial. Then, Shaw said he \u201cnever meant to hurt Jared,\u201d referring to six-year-old Jared Klein, the son of Shaw\u2019s ex-girlfriend. Shaw was convicted of killing Jared with a kitchen knife the day after Christmas 2005.
\nShaw also stated that Miller and three other guards who responded to an \u201call call code red\u201d alert \u201ckicked him over and over\u201d while he was on the floor of the cell and that they only stopped when a prison sergeant arrived.
\nInterestingly, Officer Miller suffered multiple lacerations to the head and face; one on his forehead that required 11 staples to repair; and a severely broken nose while Shaw, when examined immediately after the fracas, has only minor bruises and one small cut on his back.
\nThe defense also called former Blair County Prison inmate Dennis Beckwith to the stand in an attempt to paint Officer Miller as a rogue prison guard who antagonized inmates for the sake of doing it.
\nDA Consiglio seemed to make short work of Beckwith\u2019s testimony, pointing out to the jury that Beckwith was a multiple offender who had a history of engaging corrections officers and police officers in physical confrontations.
\nShaw will likely be sentenced within two weeks. The defense made a request that he be lodged at Blair County Prison until the sentencing so he wouldn\u2019t have to be transported back and forth from the state penitentiary where he\u2019s serving his life sentence. Consiglio indicated that prison officials in Hollidaysburg \u201cdon\u2019t want Shaw in their facility any longer than is necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Convicted child killer Nathan Shaw was already set to spend the rest of his natural life behind bars in a state penitentiary. Friday, a jury added to that sentence, finding him guilty on several criminal counts, stemming from an assault on a prison guard that took place at the Blair County Prison while he awaited […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area","category-excerpts-from-the-tyrone-daily-herald"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3473\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}