Maryland Prison Agency Marks Decade Since Officer's Slaying

HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) -- Maryland's prison agency is remembering a correctional officer slain by an inmate 10 years ago.

Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services Deputy Secretary J. Michael Zeigler (ZEE'-gler) and Warden Rich Miller spoke at the memorial service Wednesday for Jeffery Wroten at the medium-security Roxbury Correctional Institution near Hagerstown.

Wroten was fatally shot by inmate Brandon Morris on Jan. 27, 2006, at a Hagerstown hospital. Wroten was guarding Morris' room after the inmate was hospitalized for removal of a sewing needle he had jabbed into his liver. Morris grabbed Wroten's gun, shot the officer, briefly took a hospital visitor hostage and escaped in a hijacked taxi.

Morris was captured later that day. He was sentenced in 2008 to life without parole for first-degree murder, kidnapping and other offenses.

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