A 45-year-old man has been found guilty after he attempted to escape from the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail in August 2015 and injured a correctional officer in the process, according to court records.
Newport News resident Kendell Serrette was convicted Tuesday of assaulting a law enforcement officer, possessing a deadly weapon as a prisoner and possessing a tool to aid escape from jail in the Williamsburg-James City County Circuit Court, court documents show.
Prosecutors also dropped two charges of prisoner escape and malicious wounding before the trial began at 1 p.m.
He faces up to 15 years in prison for the three charges, which are class 6 felonies.
Court documents state Serrette and another inmate, now 20-year-old Raekwon Jones, attempted to escape the jail on Aug. 29, 2015.
During the jailbreak, Serrette and Jones assaulted a 45-year-old correctional officer with a toothbrush sharpened into a weapon, called a “shank,” documents say.
“He initially grabbed the officer and held the shank to his throat demanding his keys. The correctional officer was able to defend himself until other correctional officers came to his aid,” according to a Sept. 8, 2015 news release from James City County Police.
The officer suffered minor puncture wounds to his arm.
After the incident, Serrette told officers there were “problems with his family” and he was “trying to get out.” Investigators also found a handwritten map of the jail in Jones’ cell during a post-incident search, the release said.
Serrette was serving a two-year sentence for possession of a firearm by a convicted nonviolent felon at the time of the jail break, documents state. He has previously been convicted of 15 other crimes, including forgery, larceny, possession of a firearm by a felon and driving offenses, according to court records.
For his role in the jailbreak, Jones pleaded guilty March 17, 2016 to one count of attempted escape and one count of assaulting a correctional officer. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison with all but eight months suspended.
Serrette’s sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 23 at 1 p.m. in the Williamsburg-James City County Circuit Court. He faces up to fifteen years in prison.
Correction: An earlier version of this article stated Serrette faced up to three years in jail for all three charges. The story has been updated with correction information.
