Former Md. Guard Gets 30 Months In Inmate Beating

BALTIMORE (AP) -- A former Maryland correctional officer is starting a 2 1/2-year federal prison term for conspiring to severely beat an inmate who had punched a guard at the medium-security Roxbury Correctional Institution near Hagerstown.

U.S. District Judge James Bredar sentenced Tyson Hinckle on Monday in Baltimore.

Hinckle is the seventh former officer sentenced in a federal investigation stemming from the beating of inmate Kenneth Davis in 2008.

Seven more await sentencing.

Hinckle pleaded guilty in January to conspiring to violate Davis' civil rights. He acknowledged beating Davis in accordance with a practice at the prison of having officers from three consecutive shifts beat an inmate who had assaulted a guard.

Hinckle also acknowledged that he and other officers tried to cover up their involvement in the assault.

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