Associated Press
BARBOURSVILLE — Four inmates at the Western Regional Jail are facing felony charges that they forced a vulgar tattoo on a fellow prisoner.
Bradrick Allen Napier, Stacy C. Hatten, Frank Raymond Floyd and Matthew Glenn Haynes are charged with malicious wounding.
Criminal complaints filed in Cabell County Magistrate Court say a phrase and a penis were forcibly tattooed on a 26-year-old inmate’s lower back. The suspects are accused of holding the victim down and threatening to beat him if he moved.
The Herald-Dispatch says a spokeswoman for the state Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority declined comment on the alleged attack.
All four suspects and the victim are awaiting placement in the state’s overcrowded prison system. About 220 inmates at the jail are supposed to be in state prisons, according to jail administrator Mike Clark. The jail has 663 inmates, although it was built for 400.
It is unclear when the incident occurred. West Virginia State Police were notified Tuesday, officials said.
Napier, 38, is serving one to five years on a probation revocation for possessing drugs. Floyd, 27, is serving a 5- to 50-year sentence for multiple burglary and grand larceny convictions. Hatten, 35, is serving one to 15 years on drug charges.
The victim is serving time for arson.