He threw bodily fluids on officer, prosecutor says. Now Lexington man gets 7-year prison sentence
Chief Administrative Judge Frank R. Addy, Jr. wanted to set an example.
So he sentenced David Paul Merritt, 48, of Lexington to seven years in prison to “discourage future criminal conduct of this nature among inmates,” the 11th Judicial Circuit Solicitor’s Office said in a news release.
Merritt was convicted of throwing bodily fluids on a corrections officer.
Merrit was already serving a sentence — on weekends — after being convicted of multiple assault and battery charges.
When he arrived to serve his time at the Lexington County Detention Center on May 12, 2018, he was under the influence and was placed into confinement, the solicitor’s office said in the release.
In a bathroom, Merritt was ordered to put on his jail uniform but refused, and instead “belittled and resisted the officers,” according to the news release.
At that point Merritt intentionally smeared bodily waste on one of the corrections officers, the solicitor’s office said in the release.
That was too much for the judge, who said “correctional officers already have a hard enough job and nobody should have to tolerate that kind of behavior,” at Merritt’s sentencing, according to the news release.
Merritt has been transferred to the Department of Corrections and is serving his prison sentence, the solicitor’s office said.
This story was originally published February 27, 2019 at 5:43 PM.
