Robert James Cummings, 34, has been locked up since 2013 when he was one of four men who went to the North Otago home of 35-year-old Justin McFarlane and beat him to death.
At his High Court sentencing two years later, the judge referenced the defendant’s ‘‘pattern of ever-escalating serious violence which is quite unable to be ignored’’.
That proclivity has continued behind bars.
Cummings appeared in the Dunedin District Court yesterday, where he pleaded guilty to an assault charge.
Court documents said that on May 27, Cummings was in the exercise yard at the Otago Corrections Facility when the security gate was unlocked to allow another prisoner to enter.
‘‘Without warning or provocation’’, he pushed the gate open and punched a Corrections officer in the face, causing him to slump backwards into a fence.
He then kicked another prison guard in the chest as two other inmates allegedly joined the melee.
A 29-year-old man helped Cummings force the gate open and they moved into an alleyway adjoining the yard.
The officers backed off and doused the prisoners in pepper spray as the men covered their faces to negate its efficacy.
As a staff member tried to restrain Cummings, a 20-year-old inmate allegedly isolated a Corrections officer and punched him at least four times in the head and body.
A female guard was also struck several times in the back of the head, which resulted in her falling to the ground.
More staff waded in. It eventually took 12 of them to restrain the trio, a summary said.
Three of the officers sustained injuries, listed in court documents as bleeding, bruising and swelling.
It was not the first time Cummings had been convicted for his aggressive behaviour while locked up.
In 2022, he was convicted of assault with intent to injure after a vicious attack on another prisoner in which he delivered 23 punches and nine knees to the victim’s head.
Cummings was sentenced to two and a-half years’ imprisonment. His parting words as he left the courtroom were: ‘‘I don’t give a f... — I’m doing a life lag anyway.’’
In 2013, he and three others went to Mr McFarlane’s home and delivered ‘‘a tortuous and prolonged attack’’, involving a variety of weapons, which left the victim with unsurvivable head injuries.
‘‘The attack was particularly brutal and ferocious,’’ Justice David Gendall said at sentencing, describing Cummings as ‘‘a central antagonist’’.
Since his most recent assaults, Cummings has been transferred to Auckland Prison.
He will appear in the Auckland District Court this month for a sentencing date to be set.
The two co-defendants entered no plea yesterday and will appear again in the Dunedin District Court later this month.
Cummings is scheduled to see the Parole Board for the first time in 2031.
