Inmate’s appeal over Fayette County guard assault denied by state superior court
The state Superior Court denied the appeal of a man convicted of assaulting a prison guard.
Lanyere Ayers Rockamore, 46, was sentenced to serve 5 to 10 years in 2019 following a non-jury trial where a Fayette County judge found him guilty of aggravated assault, simple assault, disorderly conduct and harassment.
On Jan. 14, 2017, Rockamore gave a corrections officer at the State Correctional Institution at Fayette in Luzerne Township a concussion when he shoved the guard into the stairs and repeatedly hit him, according to court records. Police said the guard stopped Rockamore after he saw him pass something to another inmate under a cell.
In his appeal, Rockamore contended that evidence at his trial didn’t prove he was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
However, Superior Court Judge Dan Pellegrini wrote in the opinion that the record clearly supports the conviction.
“This testimony was corroborated in part by the surveillance video that captured the latter part of the incident,” Pellegrini wrote, adding that the facts sufficiently show that Rockamore’s actions were intentional.
Rockamore is currently lodged at the State Correctional Institution at Pine Grove on a homicide conviction for shooting a man in the neck in Monessen in 1999.