U.S. Penitentiary-Canaan Inmate Sentenced To 33 Months’ Imprisonment For Conspiracy To Assault A Government Witness

SCRANTON- The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that United States District Court Judge Robert D. Mariani sentenced Troy J. Blanchard, age 31, of Portland, Maine, to 33 months’ imprisonment for conspiring to assault another inmate in retaliation for that individual’s past cooperation with law enforcement as a witness or informant.

According to Acting United States Attorney Bruce D. Brandler, on or about February 28, 2019, while incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary, Canaan (USP Canaan), in Waymart, Pennsylvania, Blanchard, along with a co-defendant, conspired to assault and did assault the victim, also an inmate at USP Canaan, by repeatedly striking the victim several times about the head and body with closed fists.  The motivation for this assault was the defendants’ belief that the victim had been a government witness or informant.  The 33-month sentence that Blanchard received was ordered to run consecutively to the federal sentence that Blanchard was serving at the time of the assault.

The matter was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffery St John.

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