Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Man gets 13 years for prison assault
Corey Maxey had pleaded guilty to assaulting a corrections officer at Chester County Prison
Corey Maxey can’t control himself.
Even in prison, among the most tightly controlled of all environments, Maxey has shown a willingness to lash out at those who bother him, according to a sentencing memorandum filed by prosecutors in his assault case involving a Chester County Prison corrections officer.
Indeed, Maxey was housed at the county prison because he had been involved in a series of fights at the Curran-Fromhold prison in Philadelphia. Most recently, according to the memo, Maxey severely beat another inmate at the county prison, a man who has been charged with the death of his infant child.
“That’s what happens when you put a child killer on a block with me,” Maxey reportedly told authorities when asked why he assaulted the man, who was not identified in the memo. Maxey allegedly punched the inmate a total of 13 times and stomped on him seven more times while he was on the ground.
“This is the exact violence that the community, both inside and outside the walls of the prison, must be protected from,” wrote Assistant District Attorneys Alexis Shaw an Andrea Cardamone, who prosecuted the case against him.
On Thursday, Common Pleas Jude Phyllis Streitel sentenced Maxey, 24, of Philadelphia, to 13 to 26 years in state prison. He had earlier pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated assault, simple as-
sault, assault by a prisoner, terroristic threats, recklessly endangering another person, and harassment, for the assault on Corrections Officer Michael Kelly, who was left severely injured by the unprovoked attack.
Defense attorney Anthony Voci of Philadelphia, who represents Maxey, had asked the judge to keep the maximum term handed down against his client at five to 10 years.
According to court records, Maxey had been held at the county prison in Pocopson facing weapons charges in Philadelphia. The prison occasionally holds prisoners from other jurisdictions while they await trial for a variety of reasons. He had been housed there since December.
Shaw and Cardamone, using information from a criminal complaint filed by county Detective John C. O’Donnell, told Streitel the assault occurred in the N-Block area of the prison on March 26. At about 2 p.m., Maxey was talking on a prison phone in the day room section of Post No. 2 of the cell block. Kelly, on duty in the cell block, approached the pod and instructed Maxey to end his phone call and hang up the phone.
Instead Maxey “stood up from his seated position and struck CO Kelly in the face with a closed fist. CO Kelly attempted to defend himself but was unsuccessful and was overpowered” by Maxey.
The inmate continued to pummel Kelly with blows to the head and face, said O’Donnell, who fell to the floor. Once the officer was down and defenseless, Maxey allegedly stomped on his head. In the affidavit, O’Donnell stated that Maxey struck Kelly in the head and face with his fists and feet approximately 27 times.
The assault was stopped when other corrections officers arrived at the pod and physically overpowered Maxey, who is listed at 6-feet-2-inches and 237 pounds. Kelly was taken to Paoli Memorial Hospital’s Trauma Center by Longwood Ambulance, where he was treated for multiple orbital fractures, cuts to his face, and bruising.
The entire episode was captured on video.
Kelly suffered a number of injuries to his head and face, namely a fracture of orbital floor on the right side of his face, conjunctival hemorrhage in his right eye, multiple lacerations to his head and forehead, a concussion and hearing loss. He now suffers from depression.
He has not been able to return to wok at the prison, a job he loved, Shaw and Cardamone said. Both Kelly and Warden Edward McFadden addressed Streitel during the proceeding Thursday.
“If the defendant cannot control himself within the prison walls, he surely cannot be expected to control himself outside of them either,” Shaw and Cardamone wrote. “The only way to protect the community from this violent defendant is to sentence him to a long period of incarceration.”
On Dec. 6, authorities announced the arrests of two men who were charged with homicide in the separate deaths of their children, an infant girl and boy. Jamal Bailey, 41, of Downingtown, was charged with homicide for allegedly giving his young child the antipsychotic medication Seroquel, which resulted in her April death. William Gardner, 27, of Coatesville, is accused of inflicting deadly head trauma on his 4-month-old son in December 2016, according to court documents.
It was unclear whether Maxey would be charged with the most recent assault.