An Anne Arundel County jury has convicted an inmate of murdering a corrections officer.
The jury found 32-year-old Lee Stephens guilty of first-degree murder Thursday in the stabbing death of Cpl. David McGuinn at the now-closed Maryland House of Correction in 2006.
Stephens is now eligible for the death penalty at sentencing set for next week.
If he’s sentenced to death, it would be the first time since Maryland’s law changed to reserve capital punishment for murders in which there is a videotaped confession or biological evidence linking the defendant to the crime.
The biological evidence in this case was McGuinn’s blood on prisoners’ clothes.
Prosecutors said Stephens and Lamar Harris planned to attack McGuinn, but Stephens was acquitted of conspiracy. Harris was found not competent to stand trial.
