Jail Stabbing Gets Bensalem Inmate Prison Time

BENSALEM, PA — A Bensalem man will spend up to 22 years in state prison after he stabbed and beat another inmate at Bucks County jail.

Martin Andrew McLoughlin III, 28, pleaded guilty Thursday to using a shank made of sharpened wood to attack his fellow inmate on Oct. 9.

According to prosecutors, McLoughlin used the shank to strike the other inmate several times in the head, neck, upper back and side. The attack was recorded by security cameras at Bucks County Correctional Facility in the inmate dining room just before 7 a.m.

The two inmates can be seen talking as they stood near each other in line. Minutes later, when the men were sitting at a table only a few feet apart, McLoughlin got up from his seat, approached the victim from behind and quickly stabbed him at least five times before guards separated them.

McLoughlin told investigators he'd been planning for several days to "reprimand" the man he stabbed and he chose Oct. 9 because he thought he was being transferred to state prison later that morning.

According to court documents, McLoughlin had been sentenced on charges including burglary, criminal trespass and fleeing police.

Prosecutors say McLoughlin showed no remorse for the attack, saying "If I wanted him dead, he would be." They say McLoughlin laughed as evidence was read into evidence on Thursday.

"By your own words and behavior in this courtroom, you’ve made clear you can’t be in society," said Judge Jeffrey L. Finley. "If this had been a murder, this would have been the case study in premeditation."

Finley sentenced McLoughlin to 8 1/2-22 years in state prison for the attack and ordered that he be taken to prison as soon as possible.