DECATUR, Ala. (AP) — A one-time Alabama jailer accused of sickening inmates by lacing their cigarettes with self-defense spray has pleaded guilty to assault charges.
Former Morgan County corrections officer Jaylend Edward Handley, 27, pleaded guilty Wednesday to four counts of third-degree assault, news outlets reported.
Court documents show that Handley was working at the jail last October when he sprayed a prisoners’ cigarettes with irritating spray normally used for self-defense. Handley acted in retaliation for something the man had said, a complaint said.
The prisoner and three others who shared the cigarettes began having breathing problems and were briefly taken to a hospital as a precaution. Handley was arrested after an investigation uncovered what had happened.
Handley was ordered to pay $2,000 in fines and sentenced to 180 days in jail, followed by two years on probation, records show, and he can no longer work in law enforcement.