WEST VIRGINIA – A federal inmate was convicted for the murder of another prisoner after a five-day trial in U.S. District Court in West Virginia, according to authorities.
Inmate Kevin Marquette Bellinger, a former resident of Washington, D.C., and an inmate at the U.S Penitentiary in Hazelton, West Virginia, killed inmate Jesse Harris on Oct. 7, 2007. The slaying was captured on prison video surveillance.
On Monday, Bellinger was convicted of one count of murder by a federal prisoner serving a life sentence and one of second degree murder in a federal facility.
According to the evidence, during a move of inmates from the recreation yard back to their cells, Bellinger and a co-defendant left the yard ahead of the others and traveled to an intersection of two corridors in the prison facility, where they confronted Harris and stabbed him with shanks in an orchestrated attack.
In less than a minute, evidence indicated that an officer approached, and the attackers fled.
Officers apprehended Bellinger after a short pursuit, but they did not recover his weapon. Surveillance footage of the attack showed Bellinger and his co-defendant engaged in a verbal exchange with Harris, followed by the two attackers wielding weapons and physically assaulting Harris, who was unarmed and backing away from them, according to authorities.
At the time of the murder, Bellinger was serving a life sentence for an assault with intent to kill that took place in 2000, and his co-defendant was serving a life sentence for two separate homicides that took place in 1997 and 2000.
Bellinger was convicted of one count of murder by a federal prisoner serving a life sentence and one count of second degree murder in a federal facility.
At the time of the murder, officials said Bellinger was serving a life sentence for an assault with intent to kill that took place in 2000, and his co-defendant was serving a life sentence for two separate homicides that took place in 1997 and 2000.
Bellinger faces a sentence of life in prison.