A 29-year-old man already awaiting trial for a York County road rage shooting was back in front of a judge again — this time to receive a conviction for assaulting a fellow inmate.
Jonathan Ray McDonald of Spotsylvania was found guilty of assault and battery Thursday in the Williamsburg-James City County General District Court.
Judge Colleen Killilea sentenced him to 30 days in jail for “repeatedly punching” an inmate on Dec. 26 after an argument, witnesses testified Thursday.
After the trial, his attorney, Patricia Nagel, said her client planned to appeal the conviction. Killilea gave McDonald has 10 days to appeal.
McDonald has been in jail awaiting trial for a York County case since June. He is accused of shooting a woman in the head and another man in the face, near his eyebrow, beside the Mooretown Road overpass on Route 199 on June 4.
In court Thursday, Killilea heard testimony from multiple witnesses, staff from Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail and other inmates.
A corrections officer testified that he saw a large group of inmates gathered around McDonald’s cell in F block around 3:45 p.m. on Dec. 26.
After investigating, he found the victim — ‘Inmate M’ — inside the cell with McDonald’s roommate, John Richardson, both of whom were out of breath. The officer escorted ‘Inmate M’ out of the cell and asked him what happened.
According to court documents, “[Inmate M] said ‘It’s nothing serious. I lost a dice game and he just had to smack me on [sic] time. I don’t have to leave. That’s how this goes.’ ”
About 25 minutes later, the officer testified he saw McDonald repeatedly hit ‘Inmate M’ while on the catwalk outside his cell. The officer said he did not see what led to the altercation.
McDonald was put into solitary housing in B block after the incident, according to court documents.
Two other inmates testified that McDonald only fought with ‘Inmate M’ after he hit him, but prosecutor Cathy Black questioned their credibility because they have felony convictions and live in the same housing unit as McDonald.
Inmate Christopher Cabral, who is serving a 31-year active sentence in jail for sexually assaulting a jogger in Williamsburg, said he saw ‘Inmate M’ speak with McDonald briefly before he shoved McDonald and put him in a headlock.
As McDonald struggled to get out of the headlock, ‘Inmate M’ scratched him on the neck, Cabral said.
In court, Nagel showed a picture of McDonald’s neck taken several days after the incident. The photo showed a “finger-length red mark like road rash,” a jail nurse said.
“First [McDonald] tried pushing him away but it didn’t work … then they both started swinging at each other,” inmate Christopher Drees said.
Drees pleaded guilty in October to robbery and malicious wounding in York-Poquoson Circuit Court. He is serving a 7-year active sentence.
Nagel previously told Killilea she believed the assault charge had been manufactured so York County prosecutors would have something to impeach him with in his upcoming trial.
McDonald is scheduled for a review hearing in the road rage shooting case May 4 in the York-Poquoson Circuit Court.
Fearing may be reached at sarah.f@localvoicemedia.com.
