Maryland Inmate to Plead Guilty in Officer's Stabbing

Allegany County State's Attorney Michael Twigg says a state prison inmate will plead guilty in Cumberland to stabbing a correctional officer in an attack that led to the warden's firing.

The hearing Tuesday for 45-year-old Richard Crawford caps an episode that exposed dysfunction at the maximum-security North Branch Correctional Institution.

Twigg said Crawford will plead guilty to first-degree assault in the August stabbing of Herbert Hilliard. After the attack, the state workers union released a letter an inmate had sent to a supervisor several days earlier, threatening harm to Hilliard unless Hilliard was moved to another cell block.

The prison's security chief was quickly reassigned because Hilliard wasn't informed of the threat. Warden Bobby Shearin was fired last month for alleged leadership failures resulting in distrust and safety risks.