By Daphne Duret
The Palm Beach Post
WEST PALM BEACH — A Palm Beach County jail inmate who attacked two deputies when they asked him to stop banging on a table last year was sentenced Thursday to life in prison.
Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Charles Burton doled out the sentence for Rashan Mike, 25, of Lake Park, based on convictions earlier this year for one count each of attempted manslaughter of a law enforcement officer and aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer.
“It’s sad that a young man has messed up his life like this,” Burton said before he imposed the sentence, which followed an apology from Mike to the two deputies he attacked.
Mike was at the jail awaiting trial on sexual battery charges in May 2012 when, according to arrest reports, he got into an argument with other inmates who told him to stop banging on a table inside the detention center’s TV room.
When jail deputy Dustin Radford tried to get him to go back to his cell, he began punching him in the face and got a hold of Radford’s pocket knife, which prosecutors say he hurled at a female deputy who tried to break up the fight, causing a deep gash to her head. Mike also punched the other deputy and knocked both of them unconscious before two other inmates pulled him away.
Burton sentenced Mike as a habitual violent offender on recommendations from Assistant State Attorneys Bryan Poulton and Shashi Jairam. Mike was already serving a life sentence for a capital sexual battery conviction in the rape of a young girl.
Despite the existing life sentence, Poulton told Burton it was important to do the same for the attack on the officers.
“Just because you’re already sentenced to life, it doesn’t give yo the right to attack the way he did,” Poulton said. “You can’t be violent with deputies without repercussions.”