Inmate gets 20 more years in killing of fellow prisoner

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STAR CITY, Ark. (AP) – An Arkansas state prison inmate has been sentenced to 20 additional years for manslaughter in the killing of a fellow prisoner during an outbreak of violence in 2017.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports James Walker died in September 2017
from a single punch.

A Lincoln County jury determined Tuesday Damont Ewells was reckless when
he hit the 34-year-old, causing him to fall and crack his head on a concrete floor at the Cummins Unit in Grady.

The 47-year-old Ewells told the court he blacked out but that he does remember confronting Walker, who was his friend.

Ewells was imprisoned in 2007 for drug offenses. He had been eligible for
parole in 2036 before Circuit Judge Jodi Dennis imposed the maximum 20-year sentence for manslaughter.

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