Associated Press
OAKLAND, Md. — A Maryland prison inmate has been convicted of attempted murder for attacking a correctional officer while working on a road crew last year.
The Times-News of Cumberland reports that Larry Jerome Johnson faces life sentences after being convicted by a Garrett County jury this week.
Johnson was a Western Correctional Institution inmate at the time of the September 2012 attack, which authorities say happened when Johnson was assigned to a road crew mowing along Interstate 68 near Grantsville.
Authorities say Johnson used prison-issued work crew pliers to injure a correctional officer supervising the crew. He then commandeered a state van, flagged down and carjacked a passing motorist and drove away.
He crashed the stolen vehicle into a tree and was arrested following a highway chase.