Inmate sentenced for assaulting Oak Park Heights prison sergeant

Nick Ferraro, Pioneer Press
·1 min read
3

An inmate at the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Oak Park Heights will spend an additional 15 years in prison for attacking a correctional sergeant, leaving her with permanent vision loss.

Dominique Antoine Jefferson, 37, has been incarcerated since 2005 for aiding and abetting second-degree intentional murder. Jefferson was 17 years old when he and two other Minneapolis teens were charged with the 2004 shooting death of convenience store clerk Moulay El-Boudknili in North Minneapolis. Jefferson was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

In January 2023, Jefferson punched the correctional sergeant with a closed fist, causing her to fall to the ground, according to the criminal complaint. Other officers quickly restrained Jefferson, who continued to verbally assault and threaten them.

The sergeant was transported by ambulance to Regions Hospital, where she was found to have significant damage to her right eye and numerous facial fractures. She had multiple surgeries and was told that her retina permanently detached from her eyeball and could not be reattached, the complaint says.

On Thursday, Jefferson pleaded guilty to first-degree assault of a peace officer and was given a 15-year sentence, which will run consecutively with his current prison term.

The assault was among four attacks on correctional staff at the Stillwater and Oak Park Heights prisons over the course of a week.

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