Inmate who threw jailer off balcony by her hair sentenced to 55 years

DA: 7 prior felony convictions mean no possibility of parole.

A Carroll County inmate will spend the next 55 years in a state prison for attack- ing a 20-year-old jailer and throwing her off a balcony by her hair, causing her to fall 12 feet onto a block partition.

Af er a three-day trial, Pat- rick O’neil Gentry, 37, was found guilty Wednesday of criminal attempt to com- mit malice murder, aggra- vated battery and obstruc- tion of an officer in the 2020 attack. He was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Dusty Hightower to serve 55 years.

Because Gentry has seven prior felony convictions, his prison sentence must be served without the possibil- ity of parole, Coweta Judi- cial Circuit District Attorney Herb Cranford said.

“Every member of law enforcement in our com- munity goes to work every day knowing that they are putting themselves in harm’s way to protect and serve our community,” Cranford said in a statement Friday. “It is a debt we cannot repay. How- ever, when a criminal seeks to harm a law enforcement officer, the District At orney’s Office will do its part to see that criminals like Patrick Gentry receive substantial prison sentences.”

On Jan. 12, 2020, Carroll jail officers were conduct- ing cell searches for blankets and laundry bags that were being hoarded by inmates. One of the officers, Harlee Rood, had confiscated a laun- dry bag from Gentry’s cell when he snatched it from her,

abbed her by the hair and clothes, dragged her out of the cell, and threw her under the railing off the 2nd-floor balcony,” Cranford said.

Gentry then ran for the stairs toward the ground floor, seemingly to continue his attack on Rood, the dis- trict attorney said. How- ever, his cellmate chased him down and grappled wi h him at the top of the stairs until other officers arrived to take him back into custody.

od suffered a compression fracture of one of her vertebrae after falling on the concrete partition that divides the cell block’s showers, officials said. She voluntarily resigned from the sheriff ’s office on Dec. 31, 2020, according to records from the state’s Peace Officer Standards Training Council. Her jailer certification remains in good standing, but she hasn’t worked at any other jail in Georgia.

Sheriff Terry Langley, speaking after the incident, said the injured officer had been an asset to his office for a little more than two years and is highly respected by both her co-workers and jail inmates, “as is clear by their willingness to assist her in a dangerous situation.”

Gentry had housed at the jail since August 2019 after being booked on charges of forgery, criminal damage to property, providing false information to law enforcement and terroristic

and acts.