MANTEO, N.C. — A former Randolph-area man convicted of murdering four prison workers in North Carolina during a failed escape attempt two years ago has been sentenced to death.
The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk, Va., reports that jurors on Monday settled on execution as the appropriate penalty for 30-year-old Mikel Brady for the deadliest attempted prison breakout in state history.
Brady was the first of four inmates tried on charges of killing two prison guards, a maintenance worker and a sewing plant manager on Oct. 12, 2017, at Pasquotank Correctional Institution in Elizabeth City.
Brady was already serving time for attempted murder for shooting a North Carolina state trooper in 2013. The trooper, who was shot in the face, hands and shoulder during a traffic stop in Durham, N.C., in 2013, survived. At the time of the shooting, Brady was a fugitive from Vermont wanted on a probation violation.
Brady had served prison time in Vermont after pleading guilty to breaking into a Royalton home in 2009 and beating two people with baseball bats in a bid to steal marijuana and money.
He previously had been convicted of stealing more than 200 sticks of dynamite from the Rock of Ages quarry in Bethel.
In the North Carolina prison case, jurors deliberated for about half an hour before convicting Brady of four counts of first-degree murder.
Brady also was convicted of 10 other crimes including attempted escape, assault with a deadly weapon and setting a fire inside the prison. The fire was aimed at causing chaos within a sewing workshop to distract guards and aid the prisoners’ escape attempt, authorities said.
Jurors viewed a video in which Brady told investigators he was upset over his nearly 25-year sentence in the shooting of the North Carolina trooper and felt he had nothing to lose. He said he thought about escaping for months before making the break.
Brady told a state law enforcement agent during the interview that the inmates attacked Correction Officer Wendy Shannon, 49, and hit her until she “stopped.”
“Until she stopped what?” the interrogating law enforcement officer asked.
“Moving,” Brady replied.
Jurors also saw prison camera photos of the four prison workers lying in pools of blood as Brady and others armed with hammers or scissors stood over them, The Virginian-Pilot reported.
Jonathan Monk, Wisezah Buckman and Seth Frazier are the other three inmates charged with first-degree murder in the deadly attack at the prison in Elizabeth City, about 40 miles north of Raleigh.
Prison understaffing at the time of the assault was so severe that workers cut corners in ways that endangered personnel, an evaluation team from an arm of the U.S. Justice Department found in a report released last year. A quarter of the jobs at Pasquotank prison were vacant, and the reliance of managers on staff overtime led to burnout and complacency, the National Institute of Corrections report said.
Understaffed prison workers failed to keep track of tools, metal shards and hazardous chemicals, the report said. Doors were left unlocked, and inmates roamed unobserved near the sewing plant where the fire was set and created undiscovered hiding places outside the view of video cameras.
Killed were Veronica Darden, 50, head of the sewing plant, maintenance worker Geoffrey Howe, 31, Corrections Officer Justin Smith, 35, and Shannon.
Brady joins more than 140 people on North Carolina’s death row. The state has had no executions since 2006.
Material from the Valley News was used in this report.