(SALEM, IL) — A 29-year-old Centralia man was sentenced Thursday in Marion County Court to an additional 2 years in prison, after he pleaded guilty to criminal damage to government property in the Marion County Jail. Cedric Powe is already serving a 14-year prison sentence in Big Muddy for the December 2013 beating of his then girlfriend. While he was being held in the Marion County Jail awaiting trial on the aggravated domestic battery charge, Powe was charged with Class 1 felony bringing a controlled substance into a penal institution for a prescription pill found during a search of his cell for a shank. Powe had tipped off deputies to the possession of the shank by another inmate; however, surveillance video showed Powe breaking the handle off the dustpan to make the shank and then hiding it in his jumpsuit, which led to the criminal damage charge to which he pleaded guilty. The Class 1 charge was dismissed per the plea agreement. The two-year sentence will have to be served when Powe has completed his previous sentence for domestic battery.

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