MANTEO, N.C. (WAVY) — The second inmate to go on trial in connection to the deadly prison break at Pasquotank Correctional Institution has been sentenced to death.
The Daily Advance first reported that a Superior Court judge sentenced Wisezah Buckman, 36, to the death penalty on Thursday after a Dare County jury recommended the sentence for the now five-time convicted murder.
Earlier in the month, Buckman was found guilty of four counts of first-degree murder and 10 other felony charges in the attempted escape. It happened on October 2017 that left four correctional staff members dead.
Mikel Brady, the self-proclaimed “pack leader,” was sentenced to death in 2019.
Buckman was serving a 32-year prison sentence for a 2014 killing in Charlotte when the attack occured.
Buckman, along with Brady, Seth Frazier and Jonathan Monk started a fire in the sewing facility at the prison before murdering sewing plant manager Veronica Darden, correctional officers Wendy Shannon and Justin Smith, and maintenance mechanic Geoffrey Howe, according to prosecutors.
All four were eventually captured inside prison walls.
Former District Attorney, now Superior Court Judge, Andrew Womble called the crime “some of the most brutal acts in my” career.
Frazier and Monk are still waiting trial.
While there are nearly 140 people on death row, according to the North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, the last execution was 2006.
CORRECTION: In earlier on-air reports the age of Buckman was incorrect. WAVY-TV 10 apologizes for the error.
