CLARKSBURG, W. Va. — One of the two federal inmates charged in the death of another Hazelton inmate has been sentenced to life without parole.
Kevin Marquette Bellinger, 33, a former resident of Washington, D.C., and an inmate at the United States Penitentiary in Hazelton was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Clarksburg by U.S. District Judge Irene M. Keeley.
He was convicted by a federal jury in June on charges of second-degree murder in a federal facility and murder by an inmate serving a life sentence after his role in the Oct. 7, 2007, murder of 28-year-old inmate Jesse Harris.
According to evidence presented at trial, during a move of inmates from the recreation yard back to their cells, Bellinger and co-defendant Patrick Andrews left the yard ahead of the others and traveled to an intersection of two corridors in the prison facility. It was there where they confronted Harris, stabbing him with shanks. In less than a minute, an officer approached, and the attackers fled.
Officers apprehended Bellinger after a short pursuit, but they did not recover his weapon.
Surveillance footage of the attack showed Bellinger and his co-defendant engaged in a verbal exchange with Harris, followed by the two attackers wielding weapons and assaulting Harris, who was unarmed and backing away from them.
At the time of the murder, Bellinger was serving a life sentence for an assault with intent to kill that took place in 2000.
Judge Keeley ruled Wednesday’s sentence will run consecutive to the earlier life sentence. Bellinger’s lawyer said he plans to appeal.
Andrews is awaiting trial.
This case was investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Bureau of Prisons and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Cogar, former Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Flower of the Northern District of West Virginia and Trial Attorney Richard Burns from the Criminal Division’s Capital Case Section.