United States Penitentiary Inmate Sentenced To 18 Months’ Imprisonment For Assault

SCRANTON- The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Justin Petty, age 44, of Charleston, South Carolina, was sentenced on February 18, 2021, to 18 months’ imprisonment by United States District Court Judge Robert D. Mariani, for assaulting another inmate in retaliation for that individual’s past cooperation with law enforcement as a witness or informant.

According to Acting United States Attorney Bruce D. Brandler, on or about February 28, 2019, while incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary, Canaan (USP Canaan), located in Waymart, Pennsylvania, Petty, along with a co-defendant, conspired to assault and did assault the victim, also an inmate at USP Canaan, by repeatedly striking the victim several times about the head and body with closed fists.  The motivation for this assault was Petty’s belief that the victim had been a government witness or informant. 

The 18-month sentence that Petty received was ordered to run consecutively to the federal sentence that Petty was serving at the time of the assault.

The matter was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBP) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).  Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffery St John prosecuted the case.

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