Illinois prison guard pleads guilty to role in fatal beating of handcuffed inmate KATE FELDMAN
A sergeant at Western Illinois Correctional Center pleaded guilty Tuesday for his participation in the May 2018 brutal attack of an inmate who died from his injuries.
Willie Hedden, 42, entered the plea to conspiracy to deprive civil rights, deprivation of civil rights under color of law resulting in bodily injury and death and conspiracy to engage in misleading conduct after admitting to trying to cover-up the assault, the Illinois Department of Justice announced.
The victim, 65-year-old Larry Earvin, was being escorted from his residential unit at the prison to another housing unit with his hands cuffed behind his back when Hedden, correctional Lt. Todd Sheffler and officer Alex Banta allegedly began attacking him, according to prosecutors.
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Former Correctional Officer Pleads Guilty in Inmate Death
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Willie Hedden, 42, of Mount Sterling, entered the plea to two counts of civil rights violations and one of providing misleading information in the subsequent investigation of the May 17, 2018 injuries sustained by 65-year-old Larry Earvin.
Earvin died five weeks later. The two civil rights counts each carry penalties of as much as life in prison. Hedden agreed to cooperate in an ongoing investigation which involves two of Hedden s Illinois Department of Corrections colleagues.