NEW BOSTON, Texas-A Bowie County district judge sentenced a Texas prison inmate to 45 years in prison Wednesday for a one-punch assault on a Barry Telford Unit correctional officer.
Bryan Austin White, 27, will not begin receiving credit toward his 45-year term until he has finished serving the 25-year sentence for aggravated robbery that landed him in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in the first place. White was found guilty Tuesday by a jury of aggravated assault on a public servant.
In the months leading up to his trial, White sought to resolve the case through a plea bargain several times. Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp, acting on behalf of the state, declined to accept last-minute offers from White to accept 18 or 25-year terms and held fast to the state's right to a jury trial.
White's lawyer, Jeff Harrelson of Texarkana, mentioned at a pretrial hearing that White would prefer to have his case tried to the bench and let Lockhart decide if he committed aggravated assault or just assault, an offense with a substantially lower range of punishment. But Crisp declined and a jury of nine women and three men spent about 30 minutes deliberating Tuesday before returning a guilty verdict on the more serious of the crimes.
White was told by a sergeant working in building eight of the prison to go back to his assigned pod in building four early on the morning of Jan. 3 after White asked the building 8 sergeant to put him on a work detail. Once back in building four where he belonged, White approached Correctional Officer Kevin Squibb, a man twice his age and half his stature, about being placed on a work detail.
When Squibb told White he didn't have orders for such, White became "agitated" and Squibb testified that White's aggressiveness led him to call for help. White appeared in a soundless recording of the event to back off, placing his hands behind him and walking away from Squibb. But as Squibb looked away, White dropped the book he'd been carrying, squatted, and landed a forceful blow to the side of the officer's head, knocking him immediately unconscious and sending the officer's body crashing to the floor, hitting a pole on the way down.
The jury opted to find White guilty of aggravated assault as argued for by Crisp and Assistant District Attorney Lauren Richards and rejected Harrelson's argument that White's single jab was certainly an assault but not an aggravated one.
White was allowed to have Lockhart, rather than the jury, settle on a punishment in the range of 15 to 99 years or life in prison. While Lockhart heard testimony Wednesday from additional witnesses meant to help him arrive at his decision, he told the parties that the evidence presented to the jury Tuesday was foremost in his thinking.
Lockhart specifically referred to the video evidence which silently portrayed White's movements before, during and after the assault.
"Two things caught my attention," Lockhart said.
Lockhart pointed to White's behavior in the seconds after Squibb collapsed, when White remained "postured" over Squibb's body as if ready to strike again if the officer moved or defended himself. After casually retrieving the book he'd dropped before the assault, White stepped over a motionless Squibb and walked down three flights of stairs to a common area.
"That looked congratulatory to me," Lockhart said of White's interactions with other inmates in the dayroom.
White is currently serving two concurrent 25-year terms he received in Kauffman County, Texas, in 2011. Until Wednesday, White's projected release date was Oct. 6, 2036, and his parole eligibility date listed as April 6, 2024, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice website. That is expected to change in light of Squibb's conviction and sentence in Bowie County.
The Bowie County District Attorney's Office has taken on several cases recently involving alleged inmate assaults on Telford staff. Last year, Billy Joel Tracy was sentenced to death by a Bowie County jury for beating Officer Timothy Davison to death, and Alonzo Guerrero was sentenced to life by a jury earlier this year for soaking a correctional officer in feces and urine he spewed from a plastic bottle in his cell. Davison, Guerrero and White have repeatedly engaged in misconduct while in TDCJ custody.
"Our correctional officers have a dangerous job and one often overlooked by the public. This district attorney's office could not be more proud of the men and women who report to work at the Telford Unit each day and execute their duties with professionalism without seeking recognition," Crisp said. "These convictions-and the resulting lengthy prison sentences -reinforce their safety and communicate that assaults on correctional officers carry serious consequences. This incident highlights the significant danger associated with corrections work and the outcome of this case reaffirms that individuals, even while incarcerated, will be held accountable for their actions."