By all accounts, it was a bad week for the 24-year-old Pierce County Jail inmate.
Corrections deputies searched the man’s cell Feb. 22 and discovered he had ripped his mattress and gouged a hole in the wall with a pencil. The next day, deputies found a shank – a homemade knife – made from metal torn from the alarm cover.
The day after that, a 4-inch-long shank made from a screw, toilet paper roll and bed sheet strips, a tattoo-making kit and an alcoholic beverage were found in his cell.
Because the inmate continued causing damage to jail property, authorities apparently took money from his jail account to pay for some repairs. The inmate was unaware of this.
When he went to make a phone call Feb. 28, he learned he didn’t have as much money as he thought and began banging the phone against the wall. He slammed it into the wall three times after being ordered to stop and struggled with a deputy as he was returned to his cell.
The inmate allegedly lunged at the deputy, causing him to smack his back against the wall, and tried to ram the deputy with his head. After he was put back in his cell, the inmate called the deputy derogatory names and repeatedly banged on his cell door.
“It appears that the defendant was upset because there was no money on his phone account to make a phone call,” according to charging papers. “The defendant’s account was depleted because of previous damage he had done in the jail.”
The inmate has pleaded not guilty to custodial assault and two counts of possessing a deadly weapon in a correctional facility.
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