Two inmates, Daniel Higgins of Morro Bay and Austin Noblitt of Portland, admitted guilt yesterday to assaulting a correctional officer at USP Atwater, a high-security federal prison located in Merced County. The assault, which occurred within the forbidding walls of the penitentiary, left the unnamed officer with facial lacerations serious enough to necessitate hospital care, as affirmed by the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Details released by the U.S. Attorney's Office note the defendants could see up to two decades behind bars, and a fine that could stretch to $250,000. The actual sentence for Higgins and Noblitt though, slated for an October 7 ruling, hangs on the court's deliberation over a web of statutory guidelines and variables. The court could, take into account a number of factors.
The investigation, spearheaded by the FBI, culminated in the recent guilty pleas. The abrasiveness of the American criminal justice system is often meticulous in its process and thus far has channeled the course of justice through the thorough work of Assistant U.S. Attorneys Chan Hee Chu and Jeffrey A. Spivak, who are managing the prosecution.
