Ex-state prison guard to serve five years for beating inmate

Published 3:22 pm Friday, March 1, 2019

A former Mississippi prison guard has been sentenced to five years in federal prison after beating an inmate in a state prison in 2016.

U.S. District Judge Daniel Jordan sentenced 27-year-old Reginald Laterry Brown on Friday after Brown pleaded guilty in November to a civil rights violation.

Court documents show Brown was working as a prison guard at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Pearl when he and two others attacked inmate Leon Hayes in his cell in May 2016.

Subscribe to our free email newsletter

Get the latest news sent to your inbox

Another guard, Shelley Griffith, pleaded guilty in federal court in December 2017, but has never been sentenced. Prosecutors didn’t immediately respond as to why. A third guard who Hayes says beat him hasn’t been charged in federal court.

Hayes, still in prison, is suing the guards seeking money damages.