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Moffat County Jail inmate said he punched the wrong guy in felony assault case

Deputies in the Moffat County Jail had to put breakfast on hold earlier this week after a brief, but bloody fight broke out.

Christopher Dale McCarthy, 39, of Wamsutter, Wyo. was arrested inside the Moffat County Jail Monday, Nov. 25 on a felony charge of second-degree assault.

According to an arrest affidavit compiled by Moffat County Sheriff’s Deputy Dara Bond, a MCSO lieutenant was serving breakfast to a group of jail inmates when McCarthy approached to get his meal.



Christopher Dale McCarthy
Courtesy Photo

As he approached the lieutenant, the lieutenant reported McCarthy said to him, “So we meet again,” before turning to a nearby inmate and punching them square in the right cheek.

The affidavit said the lieutenant quickly stopped serving food and restrained McCarthy, who after being thrown into a holding cell, told the lieutenant he “punched the wrong guy.”



A few minutes later, deputies took the injured inmate to the booking area for medical treatment where they saw him bleeding from “what appeared to be a deep cut on his right cheek,” the affidavit said.

By 8 a.m., the injured inmate was on his way to a local hospital where medical personnel and police got his side of the story.

“I was eating breakfast when I was sucker-punched on the right cheek, under my right eye,” the inmate told deputies. “When I stood up, I seen my blood all over the floor. The deputies took me to the local hospital where I received five stitches. McCarthy attacked me for no reason. I’ve never talked to him and he has never talked to me. He just attacked me for no reason.”

Deputies later obtained a signed physician’s statement from the doctor who treated the inmate-victim which said the victim suffered from serious bodily injury because those “injuries have a substantial risk of serious permanent disfigurement,” according to the affidavit.

McCarthy was booked on the charges Nov. 25 and was still in the Moffat County Jail as of Wednesday, Nov. 27.  


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