Oak Park Heights inmate sentenced to 15 years for partially blinding female prison guard

An Oak Park Heights prison inmate has been sentenced to 15 additional years after pleading guilty to punching a correctional sergeant, who lost vision in one of her eyes as a result.

Dominique Antoine Jefferson, 37, who was serving a 25-year sentence for aiding and abetting second-degree murder, punched the sergeant, boasted about it and threatened other officers in the January 2023 incident, according to charges.

Jefferson pleaded guilty Thursday to first-degree assault charges in Washington County District Court before he was sentenced. The new sentence will start when Jefferson completes his current sentence, which he began serving in 2005.

According to charging documents filed in court: Jefferson approached a guard station around 9:30 a.m. on Jan. 15, 2023, and asked to speak with a member of the crisis intervention team.

The sergeant, who was not named in court documents or a news release from the Washington County Attorney's Office, approached him and said she was a member of the team. Jefferson said he didn't want to speak with her, and she told him to return to his cell.

Instead, Jefferson pulled a mouth guard out of his pants, put it in his mouth and said, "Better ring the bell ... I've been waiting for you."

As she reached for her microphone to call for assistance, Jefferson punched her in the eye, knocking her to the floor, where she began "bleeding profusely from her face," the charges state.

Using an expletive and laughing, Jefferson said he had made the sergeant "bleed out and I only have five years left," as other correctional officers rushed in and detained him. He taunted and threatened the other officers, saying at one point, "Let go of me and I'll do the same to every one and each of y'all. I'll remember y'all when I come out."

The sergeant was taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul, where she was treated for a detached retina in her right eye and fractures to her facial bones. After numerous surgeries, she has not recovered vision in the eye and continues to undergo medical treatment for the injuries.

"In a profession already burdened with the challenges of ensuring safety and order, correctional officers should never have to face the added threat of violence," Washington County Attorney Kevin Magnuson said in a news release.