ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - An Anchorage prison inmate convicted of felony assault in the beating of a corrections officer has been sentenced to 19 more years in prison.
James Coven, 27, was near the start of a 199-year sentence for a double homicide when he attacked Corrections Officer Sean Winslow.
According to prosecutors, Coven asked to make a phone call on Sept. 5, 2012. Winslow instead ordered Coven back to his cell at Anchorage Correctional Complex East.
Coven punched Winslow in the head, which knocked the officer to the floor, and repeatedly kicked him, authorities said. Winslow suffered a fractured nose, broken teeth and a concussion.
Coven previously was charged in the shooting deaths of two teenage drug dealers in Anchorage. Christon Lee and Matthew Peterson were both 19 on Feb. 18, 2009, when Coven walked up to their pickup and fired an AK-47 assault rifle into the cab.
Coven was convicted of first-degree murder in February 2012. He was sentenced on that charge in August, a month before the assault on Winslow.
Coven in January was convicted of two counts of felony assault for the attack on Winslow.
On Thursday, Anchorage Superior Court Judge Sen Tan sentenced Coven and declined a recommendation by Coven’s attorney to mitigate the sentence because the assault was not as serious as others, prosecutors said in a release.
Tan said the sentence was necessary as a deterrent for other prisoners who could assault corrections officers.
Coven told the judge he was segregated from other prisoners because of the assault. A message left Friday for Coven’s public defender, Dan Lowery, was not immediately returned.
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