Standard-Speaker
HAZELTON, Pa. — A state inmate convicted just last week of trying to kill a prison guard was arrested for allegedly stabbing another guard at State Correctional Institution-Frackville on Saturday.
The most serious charge against 24-year-old William A. Cramer is attempted murder in the first degree, but state police at Frackville also charged him with two felony counts each of assault by prisoner and aggravated assault, along with two misdemeanor weapons charges, according to arrest papers. He was arraigned Monday by Magisterial District Judge Anthony Kilker, Shenandoah, who remanded him back to jail on $1 million bail.
At 8:40 a.m. Saturday, Cramer attacked an unnamed SCI-Frackville guard with a “shank,” or handmade knife, causing critical injuries by slashing the victim’s neck and arm, troopers allege. Prison staff stopped the attack and subdued Cramer while providing the victim with immediate medical treatment, according to police. The guard was taken for treatment at a hospital and his condition was stabilized, police wrote in arrest papers.
Staff at the jail secured the crime scene until troopers arrived to investigate, after which they concluded that Cramer intentionally attempted to kill the guard, according to court papers. On Monday, the Schuylkill County District Attorney’s Office approved a criminal complaint charging Cramer with the offenses.
This isn’t the first time Cramer is charged with assault on a corrections officer. On Thursday, a jury found him guilty of attempted murder after he sliced the neck of a correctional officer at State Correctional Institution-Coal Township, Northumberland County, in August 2014, according to published reports. That officer was left with serious injuries. Cramer faces a mandatory life sentence without parole in that case.
Cramer was also serving a life sentence for the August 2012 death of his cellmate at Cambria County Prison, published reports state. A check of the Pennsylvania Unified Judicial System website shows he also had three criminal cases in Fayette in 2009 for robbery and was sentenced to four to nine years in jail.
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