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SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah State Prison inmate accused of attacking a corrections officer and locking him in a shower is facing several felony charges.
Jordan Kent, 29, was charged Wednesday in 3rd District Court with aggravated kidnapping, a first-degree felony; assault by a prisoner and possession of items prohibited in a correctional facility, both third-degree felonies; obstructing justice, a class A misdemeanor; and criminal mischief, a class B misdemeanor.
On Sept. 2, a Department of Corrections officer working in the Antelope housing unit at the Utah State Correctional Facility, 1480 N. 8000 West, smelled what he believed was homemade "brew," or alcoholic beverage, coming from several cells, according to charging documents. A search was conducted of the cells but nothing was found.
The officer then noticed two inmates "with bottles of brew in their shorts," the charges state. One inmate surrendered his bottle without incident. The second, Kent, handed over one bottle but still had another his shorts, according to the charges.
When the officer asked for the second bottle, Kent at first "acted like he didn't have it," then became angry and threw the bottle in the shower, the charges state. The officer went into the shower to retrieve the bottle and then "heard yelling and turned around in time to see a tablet being thrown at his head. (The officer) tried to move out of the way, and the tablet nicked his right ear and then shattered on the floor," the charges state. Kent then "slammed the shower door shut which then automatically locked."
Another officer saw what was happening on surveillance cameras. The other inmates were returned to their cells before "a team of officers went to the section, and officers in the control room opened the shower door to let (the officer) out," according to the charges.
The incident is one of several recent confrontations involving corrections officers being attacked by inmates at the new prison. Between Jan. 21 and Feb. 4, at least three corrections officers were assaulted in separate incidents. In March, Atiba Randall Jacobs, 27, was charged in 3rd District Court with aggravated assault by a prisoner causing injury and aggravated kidnapping, first-degree felonies, for allegedly punching an officer multiple times, leaving him unconscious.
Travis Brandon Bennett, 34, was also charged in March with aggravated assault by a prisoner, a first-degree felony, for punching an officer and breaking his nose.
