One of five men charged in connection with the riot last year at the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution entered a plea Monday in Johnson County District Court.
Ian Yelton, 23, pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree assault of Cory Bewley, an inmate serving time for second-degree murder. Bewley is now at the Lincoln Correctional Center.
Yelton is set for sentencing June 27 and remains incarcerated in Tecumseh. He was the second of the five charged to enter a plea.
In May, William T. Harris, 22, pleaded no contest to an amended charge of third-degree assault for making a threat to a corrections employee. Johnson County District Judge Daniel Bryan Jr. added a year to his 51-to-74-year sentence on charges including assault.
Harris originally was accused of making terroristic threats, a felony, but entered the plea to a misdemeanor in a deal with the state. He also remains in the Tecumseh prison.
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That leaves three other inmates facing felony charges on allegations they assaulted officers during the riot that raged for 11 hours and left parts of the prison in ruins. Prosecutors have amended the charges against two of them — Roger Weikle and John Zalme — to include habitual criminal enhancements.
On Monday, Weikle, who is accused of kicking an officer in the head during the start of the Mother's Day uprising, was in court and set for trial in August. He is serving 72 to 218 years for charges including murder and is the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln.
Last week, Zalme, who is accused of hitting a second officer in the head as he tried to restrain Weikle and Frederick Gooch during the Tecumseh riot, pleaded not guilty and was set for trial in November. Zalme is serving 130 to 229 years on charges including assault and being a habitual criminal. He is at the Tecumseh prison.
In April, a motion for competency was filed in Gooch’s case after he refused to go to court three times in his case. He is serving 18 to 20 years for possession of cocaine with intent to deliver and several counts of assaulting a corrections officer and is now at the penitentiary in Lincoln.
No charges have been filed in the deaths of Shon Collins and Donald Peacock, who were beaten during the riot, presumably by fellow inmates. In April, a Johnson County grand jury found no wrongdoing on the part of the state.