Thomson inmates sentenced for prison assault

ROCKFORD - Two Thomson inmates were both sentenced to serve at least 8 more years in federal prison after pleading guilty to assaulting another inmate in 2019.

Christopher D. Barrow, 39, was sentenced to 105 months, and Jason Mackenzie, 40, was sentenced to 96 months Thursday in federal court before U.S. District Court Judge John J. Tharp, Jr. for the assault of another inmate at USP Thomson.

On May 8, 2019, Barrow, Mackenzie, and Bradley Shelton, who is scheduled to be sentenced in March 2022, “punched, kicked, and stomped another inmate about the body and head multiple times causing serious bodily injury to the inmate,” according to a news release from the United States Attorney Northern District of Illinois.

Both sentences will be served consecutively and will be followed by 3 years of supervised release.

Barrow pleaded guilty to the assault charge on Dec. 22, 2020, and Mackenzie pleaded guilty to the charge on July 6, 2021.

The sentence was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; and Emmerson Buie, Jr., Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the FBI.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Vincenza L. Tomlinson.