Witness Describes Ambush Of Guard

Pair Serving Life Accused in Killing At Md. Prison

Maryland state troopers and a prison employee help secure the front gate at the state House of Correction the day after the killing of a prison guard. Two inmates serving life sentences for murder have been charged. (By James A. Parcell -- The Washington Post)

In the final hour of his life, alone on a tier of cells in a maximum-security state prison, Maryland corrections officer David W. McGuinn pitched his body forward, shielding his face with his hands as the inmate behind him stabbed him at least three times, a witness told police.

Charging documents made public yesterday provided a raft of new details, including the witness's account, about the deadly assault Tuesday night at the House of Correction in Jessup in Anne Arundel County.

According to other court records, the two inmates charged in McGuinn's slaying were serving life sentences after being convicted of murder, one in Baltimore and the other in Wicomico County on the Eastern Shore. One of the two, Lamarr C. Harris, has been convicted in at least one assault case against a guard.

The witness identified Harris, 35, as one of McGuinn's assailants, picking him from an array of 13 photographs of inmates on the tier, the documents say. The witness is not quoted as saying anything about Lee E. Stephens, 27, the other inmate charged.

The inmates escaped from their cells despite a prisonwide lockdown, apparently by jamming the locks on their cell doors, and then returned to their cells after the attack, authorities have said. According to the documents, "a device commonly used by inmates to prevent their cell doors from locking" was found on the ground outside Harris's cell.

Ron Bailey, executive director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union, which represents corrections officers, confirmed yesterday that inmates at that facility and others "come up with all types of homemade devices" to jam locks. Decks of cards, tape and hard plastic objects of many kinds can be put to that use, Bailey said.

The motive for the killing remained unclear yesterday. Authorities have said that McGuinn had previously been threatened and that they are investigating the possibility that he was targeted. Because of the threat, McGuinn was transferred for a time to an area where he had limited contact with inmates. Bailey said he had been transferred back recently.

McGuinn's slaying brought new attention to a rash of recent violence at the facility, where two corrections officers were stabbed and seriously wounded in March and three inmates have been killed in as many months. McGuinn, 42, was the second Maryland corrections officer to be killed this year and the first to be killed inside a prison since 1984.

Authorities have said McGuinn was attacked about 10 p.m. Tuesday as he conducted a routine head count alone on the fourth floor of the prison's south wing.

"The defendant was raising his arm up and down repeatedly in a stabbing motion," according to the summary of the witness's account. The witness saw McGuinn struck at least three times and heard him "cry in pain each time," according to the charging documents, which do not name the witness.

McGuinn was able to radio for help. Other corrections officers then found him "staggering down the steps with his face and head covered with blood," the documents say.

Harris was found in his cell, at a sink washing clothes and a bedsheet, some of which appeared to be bloodstained, they say. Next to the sink were wet shoes that also appeared to be bloodstained, they say.