Three Garner Inmates Arrested Following Prison Fight

By Andrew Gorosko

State police arrested three Garner Correctional Institution inmates on July 15 following a violent incident at the high-security prison at 50 Nunnawauk Road.

State police said that inmates John Conley, Jr, 24; Lamont Swint, 22; and Darzall Weinstein, 22, assaulted inmate Montall Bethea, 19, while Bethea showered.

During the incident, Bethea received minor injuries, as did two unidentified correction officers, state police said.

Correction officers broke up the incident and all the involved inmates were placed in separate cells, state police said.

Conley, Swint, and Weinstein each were charged with third-degree assault, conspiracy to commit third-degree assault, breach of peace, interfering with police, and failure to submit to fingerprinting.

The three inmates were slated for arraignment on the charges on July 18 in Danbury Superior Court. None of the three defendants pleaded to the charges at their arraignments. The three men are scheduled to return to court in early August.

According to a statement from the state Department of Correction (DOC), the incident occurred as a group of inmates was being brought into a cellblock to use the showers there.

Initially, Bethea was attacked by another inmate with whom he had a prior dispute, and eventually six inmates became involved in the incident, according to DOC.

A total of six Garner staff members reported injuries, most of which were back and shoulder sprains, according to DOC.

Garner maintained its normal operations throughout the incident and did not enter lockdown mode, according to DOC.

Some of the inmates who were involved in the shower room assault were prisoners being held in the prison’s gymnasium due to a higher-than-normal prisoner population at Garner, according to DOC spokesman Andrius Banevicius.

Garner typically houses roughly 600 inmates. On July 19, the prison held 660 inmates, Mr Banevicius said.

Each of the three inmates who were arrested in the incident is a sentenced prisoner. Conley is serving a six-year sentence on a first-degree robbery conviction; Swint is doing a ten-year sentence on a conspiracy conviction; and Weinstein is serving a 20-year sentence on a conviction for assault on public safety personnel.

Bethea is being held at Garner as an unsentenced inmate on $150,000 bail on a pending drug charge.