CLEARFIELD – An inmate who was an instigator in the violent assault on corrections officers and in the April 28, 2015 riot at the State Correctional Institution at Houtzdale pleaded guilty when he took the stand in his own defense Tuesday morning in Clearfield County Court.
Norman Wothman, 52, a state prison inmate, pleaded guilty to three counts each of aggravated assault, conspiracy/ aggravated assault, assault by prisoner, conspiracy/assault by prisoner, simple assault and conspiracy/simple assault.
He also pleaded guilty to one count each of riot, conspiracy/riot, disorderly conduct, conspiracy/disorderly conduct and other summary charges.
He then agreed to proceed with a full colloquy before Senior Judge David Grine, who was specially presiding from Centre County, with the understanding that he would be unable to withdraw his guilty plea later on.
Wothman, who represented himself at trial with assistance of stand-by defense attorney Joseph Ryan, took the stand to tell jurors his side of the story, which he said was the “truth.” As in his opening statements, he claimed that he was trying to intervene after a sergeant started to assault another inmate.
“I thought a man was about to be killed or brutally hurt. I couldn’t just take a chance and then have him be dead,” Wothman testified. “I would have done the same thing for anybody, even if it had been a guard.”
He also likened the Houtzdale yard incident to those he’s watched over the past two years on television, where African-Americans are being abused and killed, and officers think that it’s OK. While the incident was happening, Wothman said he became upset when a sergeant came rushing into the south yard and “punching people.”
Wothman told jurors he couldn’t lie and say that he didn’t assault the sergeant. “I am facing a lot of time for this, but I came here because I wanted y’all to know the truth. I’m guilty. I’ll plead guilty. I’m guilty but I got to do what I wanted and that was to tell y’all the truth.”
District Attorney William A. Shaw Jr. then asked for Grine to dismiss the jury and conduct a full colloquy. At this point, Grine sent jurors for an early lunch. Out of the jury’s presence, Wothman gave up his right to finish the trial but did indicate he wanted to appear back in court for his sentencing.
According to Shaw, Wothman is currently incarcerated on a rape conviction out of Philadelphia. For the Houtzdale riot case, he will be facing more than 200 years in state prison. The Department of Corrections will determine if he’s lodged in a restricted housing unit.
In a post-trial media interview, he expressed problems with the DOC’s inmate classification system. “There are inmates who aren’t being classified appropriately in my opinion,” he said, “and, they should be locked down.”
In this case, he called attention to the fact that two corrections officers suffered life-altering injuries, and their lives will never be the same. This, he said, was the result of 500 inmates being in the south yard at one time with three to five unarmed corrections officers.
According to him, there’s a huge public misconception on prison environment. Members of the corrections staff aren’t carrying firearms, batons or any other weapon, and there aren’t any armed guards in towers at SCI Houtzdale. “Inmates have too many liberties to exploit,” he said, “and there are far too few corrections officers.”
Shaw said in his opinion, the DOC needs to reevaluate its staffing, the prison staff to inmate ratios and its inmate classification system. He said this wasn’t the first time an inmate has committed a serious crime at the prison, which he called one of the most dangerous in the state system.
Members of the SCI Houtzdale corrections staff are absolute professionals though, according to Shaw, and were in their response to the yard incident. He also credited the Pennsylvania State Police and the special response teams, which limited the incident to the south yard.
But the DOC still needs to step up and take more responsibility in an effort to prevent prison assaults and riots. “When you have a few thousand inmates at any time, they could organize to take over the prison,” he said.
Additional Houtzdale inmates are expected to face prosecution for being involved with the violent assault on corrections officers and in the April of 2015 riot, according to Shaw. He said: “We’re trying to bring three in at a time, so we’re not putting a burden on the system.”