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In closing arguments Tuesday morning, Assistant Attorney General Corey O'Brien asked the Johnson County jury to hold Roger Weikle accountable for the savage and unprovoked attack on a corporal as he tussled on the ground in the prison yard with another inmate who sucker punched him.

The brief melee in the yard at the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution and the shot that came in response from prison staff trying to protect their own sparked a tinderbox.

By the next morning, May 11, 2015, a wall would be burned down, offices trashed, an entire housing unit taken out of commission and two inmates dead at the hands of fellow inmates.

More than a year later, repair work still is being done and no one has been charged for the slayings of Shon Collins and Donald Peacock.

But this week, the first of a half dozen criminal cases filed for assaults, a threat and an arson went to trial.

On Monday, the jury saw videos from three angles of the brief scrap in the yard that started shortly after 2:30 p.m. on May 10 when another inmate punched Cpl. Joe Hatzenbuehler’s cheek as he tried to secure a third inmate, Rashad Washington, for refusing to give his inmate number to a caseworker.

Then, with a dozen inmates nearby, Frederick Gooch rushed toward Hatzenbuehler and landed a single punch. They started to tussle, then another guard ran up and shoved Hatzenbuehler and Gooch, sending all three men to the ground.

That, said O'Brien, was when Weikle’s primal and unprovoked instinct was to run at the vulnerable prison guard, leap into the air and aim his foot at Hatzenbuehler's face.

Soon after, the dozen or so inmates nearby dropped to the ground, and while the video doesn't show it, a shot fired from the guard tower hit Washington.

Other inmates on the yard and inside Housing Unit 2 watched as it played out in front of them.

More than a year later, only one of four prison staff members called to testify still works at the state Department of Correctional Services and none at the prison here.

The former caseworker is at a department store. A sergeant involved in the melee is at the Diagnostic and Evaluation Center. The man monitoring the video room that day is unemployed. Hatzenbuehler is a police officer in Schuyler.

In closing arguments, O’Brien said Hatzenbuehler was the subject of Weikle’s fury that day.

“This wasn’t just a glancing blow. This wasn’t just from falling down,� he said of the pink scrapes and deep bone bruise on Hatzenbuehler’s arm and the scuff to his forehead.

While Weikle may not have succeeded in the assault to the full extent he intended, he unmistakably caused the injury, O'Brien argued.

But both sides agreed, the video wasn’t close enough to show if Weikle made contact, and other prison staff who witnessed the skirmish didn’t see, either.

Weikle’s attorney, Todd Lancaster, argued that Hatzenbuehler's injury easily could have been caused by Gooch as they wrestled on the ground or by his fall to the ground and that the jury should find Weikle guilty only of attempted assault on an officer.

He pointed to the report Hatzenbuehler wrote soon after in which he said he was able to parry Weikle’s foot away with his hands. He didn’t say Weikle had struck his arm or scuffed his hairline with his shoe in the process.

Lancaster said Hatzenbuehler's story was kind of like a fish tale, with the fish getting bigger every time he told it.

But O’Brien argued the only logical conclusion was that Weikle’s foot hit Hatzenbuehler’s arm and that it's lucky the full force of the kick hit his arm rather than his head.

After deliberating about 50 minutes, the jury came back with a guilty verdict.

Weikle, 60, is set for sentencing in October.

He already is serving a sentence of more than 72 years to 218 years for first-degree murder and a number of other charges. He is at the Nebraska State Penitentiary now.

Frederick Gooch and John Zalme are awaiting their own trials for assaulting the same guard.

Two others, Ian Yelton and William T. Harris, already got additional prison time for assaulting an inmate and threatening a female Corrections employee. They entered pleas.

Justin Busch, the most recent to be charged, is set to be arraigned next week.