Man Sentenced For Fatal Bucks County Prison Assault

A Levittown man who fatally slapped a fellow prisoner in the head last year in Bucks County jail has been sentenced to serve two and a half to five years in state prison, the District Attorney's office announced Monday.

Christopher Sean Williams, 38, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, simple assault, and intimidation of a witness in the Oct. 12 death of Donald Tommy Rush, 57, of Chalfont.

According to the District Attorney's office, Williams admitted that he hit Rush with an open hand after he had woken him up from a nap by talking with his cellmate. Rush collapsed and died seven hours after the assault.

His autopsy showed he died of bleeding in his brain caused by the slap to his head.

Bucks County Judge Diane E. Gibbons accepted a plea agreement in which Williams would be sentenced to two and one-half to five years, the longest sentence possible for that crime.

Williams told Gibbons that he never intended to cause such a severe injury to Rush, and apologized to his daughter.

"This is absolutely a tragedy,” he said to Rush's daughter in court, according to the District Attorney. “I just hope someday that you can forgive me.”