State prison remains under lock down after fatal brawl

Monday, July 11th 2005, 6:28 am

By: News On 6

GRANITE, Okla. (AP) -- An inmate serving time on a Tulsa County rape conviction was killed and six others were injured during a brawl at the Oklahoma State Reformatory, a prison spokesman said Monday.

Donald Jones[pictured], who was serving a 20-year sentence on a December 1997 first-degree rape conviction, was killed during the fight Sunday night, said Matt Bellendir, the reformatory's public information officer.

Bellinder said it appears Jones died of puncture wounds but the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation had not confirmed finding any weapons. OSBI investigators were conducting interviews Monday at the prison.

According to offender information posted on the Department of Corrections' Web site, Jones was 29 years old, stood 5-foot-10 and weighed 160 pounds.

The fight broke out about 7 p.m. Sunday in the exercise yard while inmates were out for their evening recreation time, said Jerry Massie, spokesman for the state Corrections Department. Six other inmates were hospitalized, and all but two had been returned to the reformatory, Bellinder said. None of the prison staff reported injuries, officials said.

About 900 men are housed at the medium-security Oklahoma State Reformatory, according to the Corrections Department Web site. The prison opened in 1910.

The prison was locked down after the fight was contained and it remained on lockdown indefinitely Monday, Bellinder said.

"Safety and security is the main issue," Bellinder said.

In June 2000, a corrections officer, Sgt. Joe Allen Gamble, had his throat slashed by an inmate at the Oklahoma State Reformatory as he tried to help a fellow officer who had been stabbed several times. Gamble died a day later at a hospital. The other officer, William Callaway, sustained wounds to the scalp, neck, shoulder and back but survived.

In February 2002, five inmates were stabbed with homemade weapons during a fight involving 16 inmates at the reformatory.

One other inmate has been killed in an Oklahoma prison fight this year.

Adam Lippert, 32, was stabbed to death March 22, when 40 black inmates rushed him and 14 other white prisoners at the Cimarron Correctional Facility in Cushing.