LEWISBURG, Pa. — A federal judge this month sentenced a former inmate at a Union County penitentiary to 30 years behind bars for the viciously beating his cellmate, who eventually died of his injuries.
Lorenzo Scott, 51, formerly of Rayville, Louisiana, initially faced a count of murder for allegedly carrying out the the brutal 2015 attack at the United States Penitentiary at Lewisburg.
Larry McCoullum, one of Scott's cellmates, died two years and two months after Scott assaulted him March 25, 2015, authorities said. He'd been in a "vegetative state" since the attack, court paperwork shows.
However, the government had to withdraw the charge because federal caselaw bars a murder prosecution in which the victim dies more than a year and a day after the infliction of their wounds.
At trial in February, Scott told a jury he meant to kill McCoullum. Jurors found him guilty of assault with intent to commit murder and assault resulting in serious bodily injury.
The case began when a correctional officer at the penitentiary, while conducting rounds around 4 a.m., found Scott stomping on McCoullum's head while McCoullum lay on the floor of their cell in a puddle of blood. A federal grand jury returned an indictment in March 2020, five years later.
The attack was "completely unprovoked," Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert J. O'Hara wrote in a sentencing memorandum seeking a 30-year sentence.
"The defendant is an extremely dangerous individual," O'Hara said. "He has never exhibited any remorse."
Scott was an inmate at the Union County federal penitentiary serving the back end of a 14-year-and-three-month sentence given for sticking up a bank in northern Texas back in 2007.
One day in March 2015, Scott found himself sharing a cell with McCoullum, a 38-year-old man more than 11-years into a 20-year sentence for cocaine trafficking in Maine.
McCoullum, Scott told prison authorities, mumbled. It bothered Scott.
"I had to put him out of his misery," Scott told authorities.
Scott told an officer he tried to flatten McCoullum's head by stomping on him "48 times."
William Sampson, a correctional officer touring G-block early that March morning, came across the assault and made Scott stop.
At first, Scott told a federal Bureau of Prisons employee that, "I didn't want him (McCoullum) to turn out like me. I hope he (McCoullum) dies."
Later, Scott told another BOP employee, "I killed him good."
"If you are going to do something, then do it right and that's what I did," Scott said, according to court filings.
Scott's public defenders, Gerald Lord and Thomas Thornton, argued in filings that Scott took responsibility for his "murderous acts."
"He has never attempted to deny the facts or distance himself from the facts," they said in a sentencing memorandum. "He also did not present a defense for insanity. There is no basis in this case to conclude that Mr. Scott did not accept responsibility for his criminal actions."
They also requested that Scott be sentenced to a special mental health unit to help him avoid "dangerous and violent behavior in the future."
Chief District Court Judge Matthew Brann, who sentenced Scott on Friday, will recommend that the BOP place Scott in such a facility.
Scott also has pending charges against him for assault and attempted rape in Lycoming County, state and federal records show.
After the assault on McCoullum, Scott was transferred to the Lycoming County Prison. On June 25, 2020, prosecutors say, Scott slapped a nurse at the facility and tried to sexually assault her.
That case remains pending in the Lycoming County Court of Common Pleas.
Scott's attorneys in his federal case said that incident happened because Scott was not properly medicated. He stabilized once placed on psychiatric and psychotropic drugs.
Scott remains housed at the Columbia County Prison as he awaits placement back in the BOP's custody.
