SCI-Greene inmate takes offer in death of cellmate
WAYNESBURG – An inmate at SCI-Greene charged with killing his cellmate in January pleaded guilty Thursday to voluntary manslaughter.
Raphael Moses Spearman Jr., 24, of Philadelphia, accepted the commonwealth’s offer of 6 to 20 years to be served consecutively to his current sentence of 6 to 16 years for a parole violation. Spearman pleaded guilty in 2012 in separate cases involving a burglary and a felon not permitted to carry a firearm. He initially was sentenced to 1 to 4 years for assaulting a law enforcement officer in Cambria County in 2010.
During a video conference Thursday, Spearman admitted killing inmate Ronald Yarbough, 22, of Cresson, Jan. 10 in their shared cell at SCI-Greene and expressed remorse to the Yarbough family. Spearman and Yarbough were cellmates for one day when corrections officers found Yarbough unresponsive.
At a preliminary hearing in June, corrections officer James McDonough said he and two other officers were conducting random searches. They were asked by the officer in charge of the block specifically to check the cell shared by Spearman and Yarbough as they were just placed together.
McDonough said the door window was covered by a towel and McDonough asked for it to be removed. After two requests, Spearman removed the towel. McDonough opened the door and entered the cell.
“There was an inmate (Yarbough) on the floor unresponsive,” McDonough said. “I turned to Spearman and asked what’s up with your cellie and he replied, ‘I think he’s dead.'”
McDonough said he called for backup and noticed Spearman appeared “nervous and aggravated.”
“I ordered him to take a seat,” McDonough said. “I asked him again, what happened? He said, ‘I choked him out.'”
An autopsy determined the cause of death was strangulation.
Court records indicate Yarbough underwent multiple mental health evaluations prior to his placement at SCI-Greene.
On Sept. 13, 2012, he was being held in Cambria County jail pending an appropriate evaluation by Cambria County Mental Health Department for placement in a mental health residence.
He eventually was placed in a special needs unit at SCI-Greene. According to the state Department of Corrections, SNUs were established to provide a safe and secure setting, along with specialized treatment services for inmates identified as being unable to function in a general population housing unit.