BLUEFIELD, W.Va. - United States Attorney Booth Goodwin announced today that a federal inmate pleaded guilty to possessing a weapon in a federal prison.
Rico Joy, 34, an inmate at the Federal Correctional Institution at McDowell, located near Welch, West Virginia, admitted that on April 21 he possessed a handcrafted knife known as a “shank." Joy is serving a twenty-year sentence following his 2007 conviction in South Carolina for being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition. He faces up to five additional years in prison when he is sentenced on Aug. 15, 2015.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney John File. Senior United States District Judge David A. Faber conducted the plea hearing.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
