Man convicted of attack on correctional officer

prison bars

By Cynthia Grau/WJEZ News

A Pontiac Correctional Center inmate was convicted of aggravated battery and sentenced to 20 years in prison Tuesday.

According to State’s Attorney Seth Uphoff, 37-year-old Kentes West was found guilty of striking a correctional officer in the face multiple times, causing great bodily harm, during a January 2013 altercation at the prison.

West called himself as a witness and requested the jury find him not guilty by reason of insanity after Uphoff presented testimony from the now-retired correctional officer who was injured in the attack.

Currently, West is serving an 85-year sentence for a 1997 Cook County conviction of armed robbery and murder.

His new sentence will run consecutively to his current sentence.