(Stillwater, Okla.) – A former Cushing prison inmate, who appeared in court shackled in leg irons with a belly chain, was given a two-year prison term Friday for repeatedly punching a guard in the face at the Cimarron Correctional Facility last summer.
Jacob Tyson Gonsalves, 21, will begin serving that sentence after he completes a seven-year prison term for escape from arrest or detention and second-degree burglary in McCurtain County in 2011, as part of a plea bargain approved in court Friday.
On his release from prison, Gonsalves will be required to pay a $100 fine, $35 to the victim’s compensation fund and restitution if any is determined, Payne County District Judge Phillip Corley ordered.
Gonsalves, who admitted the attack at the Cushing prison in court Friday, is now being held at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, state Department of Corrections records show.
Video surveillance from the private prison in Cushing showed that Gonsalves punched at the guard approximately 15 times with his right arm in the area of the head, face and torso, Cushing Police Officer Rachel Hentges wrote in an affidavit.
A minute after the incident began at 5:16 p.m. on July 20, 2014, “another guard approached and appeared to spray Gonsalves with pepper spray,” the affidavit said.
Gonsalves did not stop fighting the guard until the guard took him to the ground and other guards were able to help subdue him, the affidavit said.
The guard told the Cushing police officer that he was in the dining hall “when he observed Offender Jacob Gonsalves looking inappropriately at a female guard,” the affidavit sad.
The guard said “he escorted Gonsalves out of the dining hall and spoke to him about his behavior,” the affidavit sad.
The guard said “Gonsalves became angry so he attempted to restrain him using handcuffs,” the affidavit said.
The guard said he put handcuffs on Gonsalves’ left wrist and “was attempting to handcuff the right hand when Gonsalves punched him in the face,” the affidavit said.
The guard said “during the struggle, he maintained his hold on the handcuffs on Gonsalves’ wrist while Gonsalves struck him repeatedly in the face and head,” the affidavit said.
The guard said “the response team arrived and subdued Gonsalves using chemical agents and physical restraints,” the affidavit said.
“I observed multiple minor injuries,” on the guard, including a small cut on the right side of his nose, a large cut above his right eye and several small cuts around the inside of his left eye and on his nose, the Cushing police officer wrote in her affidavit.
The Cushing officer also saw a series of abrasions on the guard’s scalp on the right side above the temple area and extending to the crown of his head, the affidavit said.
“I also observed two raised and apparently swollen areas near the base of his head on the left and right sides.
“There were also several red marks on the right side of the (guard’s) head which were similar in size, color and shape,” the Cushing officer wrote in her affidavit.
Corrections Corporation of America Investigator Joseph Sebenick wrote in a report that he interviewed Gonsalves, who admitted he assaulted the guard “by striking him three or four times,” the affidavit said.
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