Police: SCI-Fayette inmate had weapon
An inmate is accused of possessing a weapon at State Correctional Institution-Fayette, where he is serving a sentence for an attempted homicide in Allegheny County in August 2010.
State police said Tuesday that Lance Owen King II, 24, is accused of possessing an unspecified weapon that was found at SCI-Fayette in Luzerne Township about 12:15 p.m. Feb. 21.
King is serving a 10- to 20-year sentence after he pleaded guilty in Allegheny County Court in September 2011 to his role in a shooting that injured a 6-year-old boy while he was sitting in a car in McKees Rocks.
The charge was filed five days after state police accused another inmate, Paris Raymont Murphy, 27, of possessing five stamp bags of heroin and synthetic marijuana at the prison Feb. 17.
The charges also come a week after state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale announced he will perform a review of the state Department of Corrections and its 26 prisons after receiving complaints about training and staffing issues at the facilities.
SCI-Greene in Franklin Township has also experienced several incidents in recent months.
Three corrections officers there were charged in late February with operating an illegal contraband operation in the prison last year that one employee described as a “rent-a-center.”
John C. Smith Jr., 46, of Caldwell, Ohio, Michael S. Berry Jr., 34, of Clarksville, and Andrew J. Schneider, 34, of Grindstone, were each charged in that case with unlawful use of a computer, criminal mischief, obstructing the administration of law and tampering with records.
Shawn Johnson, 35, hanged himself at SCI-Greene in January while he was serving a life sentence for first-degree murder. Another inmate there who wasn’t identified was accused in November of stabbing a corrections officer.