State police report that at about 6:40 pm on January 4, they received a report from the state’s high-security Garner Correctional Institution at 50 Nunnawauk Road that there had been an inmate assault.

State police said their investigation found that inmate George Montanez, 42, had struck his 25-year-old cellmate in the chest and the face.

A correction officer had witnessed the incident and reported it, state police said. 

State police charged Montanez with third-degree assault. Montanez was arraigned on the charge on January 5 in Danbury Superior Court. Montanez did not plead to the charge. He is scheduled to return to court on January 20.

Montanez is serving a seven-year sentence at Garner on a conviction for first-degree assault.