BLOOMSBURG- One moment was all it took for an inmate to take his chance to attack a guard using a shank he made from a razor blade. Inmate William Amos Cramer to lunge at the victim slicing his neck and arm with the shank.
The guard, Jared Michael Mausteller, was rushed from the Schuylkill County prison to Geisinger Medical Center in Danville for treatment of serious injuries. He received surgery and was discharged the following day.
Cramer, 24, is now being charged with attempted murder in the first degree, assault by life prisoner, two counts of aggravated assault, weapons or implements for escape, possessing instruments of crime, and assault by prisoner.
The Herald Standard reported Cramer was also awaiting trial at the time for allegedly assaulting prison guards on two separate occasions. This assault would allegedly be his third on guards.
According to a witness, Corrections Officer Bruce Allen Mason, who also recorded the incident on a video camera inside the housing unit, at approximately sometime before 8:40 a.m. the defendant was complaining of a heart related issue in his cell, giving good reason to be let out for a short time. He was approved to be removed from his cell to receive an EKG.
Mason said Cramer was handcuffed in the front instead of from behind due to his acclaimed heart problems. When they opened his cell, Cramer hesitated but when Mausteller turned to look away for a moment, Cramer took his chanced and lunged at him.
Cramer slashed the guard with a shank made of a razor blade and other materials and was cut on his neck first.
“That’s what you get,” Cramer allegedly yelled at the victim, according to court documents.
Cramer continued to attack the defendant with the shank, slicing his arm in the process. He continued to attack Mausteller as the guard fell backward, only stopping when he was subdued by other correctional officers on the scene.
The victim, Jared Michael Mausteller, said he could not think of a reason the defendant had attacked him.
Cramer was assigned to a single person cell 23-hours a day and typically taken from his cell for an hour out in the yard, to shower, or for medical issues, said authorities. Mausteller recalls putting the defendant in handcuffs from the front and pulling them with a tether through the door to secure them.
He says he remembers being distracted for a moment when opening the door because the defendant had hung an extra jumpsuit in the doorway. When asking Cramer why he had it, he took his eyes off of the defendant for a moment long enough for him to attack Mausteller.
Mausteller claimed he was chased by Cramer who taunted him after the attack.
The defendant, Cramer, said that he attacked Mausteller because he wanted to kill him along with many other staff members. He claimed his hatred was because Mausteller was friendly with the black inmates, calling him “a nigger lover.”
Cramer claimed that the guard was unfair and would never help him, giving reason to investigate abuse by non-whites.
He had created the shank and taped it to the door for easy access after he had been checked and handcuffed. He took his chance when the guard was distracted in an effort to kill him.
Cramer is already serving a life sentence for the murder of his cellmate in 2012 at State Correctional Institution at Mahanoy. He is now imprisoned at SCI-Frackville after he attacked a correctional officer.
Cramer has been incarcerated since the age of 17 and received his life sentence when he strangled his previous cell mate to death in 2011. He was charged with criminal homicide, aggravated assault, and assault of a prisoner.
Inmate John Tenson claimed Cramer had killed his cellmate in 2011 because he had fathered a biracial child.
Given that Cramer’s alleged motives for both major charges were race related, media outlets are labeling him as a white supremacist. He was found to be working as part of a group on these attacks, not alone.
Cramer told the police had no remorse after the incident and would like to continue to attack guards. He says that he is already serving a life sentence so there is nothing more anyone can take from him.
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