Zachariah Swann

A Butler County Prison inmate is accused of attacking a fellow prisoner allegedly after he testified against a friend at a murder trial in Allegheny County last fall.

Jailhouse video captured the unprovoked beating Dec. 18, authorities said, during which Zachariah A. Swann repeatedly punched the other inmate in the face.

Butler County detectives on Wednesday charged Swann, 25, of Butler with retaliation against a witness or victim, a felony, and simple assault, a misdemeanor.

The alleged victim, Jason R. Stine, 36, of Pittsburgh suffered a bloody nose that required treatment by the prison medical staff.

Swann has been in the county prison since his arrest on charges he stole a woman’s purse Dec. 13 near the Monroe Hotel in Butler and then stabbed a Good Samaritan who ran after and helped catch the suspect along with several other men.

Stine at the time of the alleged prison beating was jailed on burglary and other charges in connection with the Dec. 11 break-in of an ex-girlfriend’s apartment in Butler.

The altercation between the two inmates occurred about 2 p.m. after they were removed from different cells to be taken downstairs.

A corrections officer was at the elevator with the two men and had her head momentarily turned away when she heard Swann greet Stine, and then heard a “smack,” according to court documents.

When she looked back, the officer saw Swann beating on the other prisoner.

Another officer, who was at the opposite end of the hallway, reported seeing Swann hit Stine several times in the face. Stine however, never threw a punch.

That officer also heard Swann say, “That’s for trying to get my boy put on death row,” documents said.

County Chief Detective Charles Barger, who filed the charges, noted in his complaint that Stine was a prosecution witness at a homicide trial in Allegheny County for a friend of Swann’s.

The defendant at the trial was facing the death penalty in the 2013 shotgun slaying of another man in McKeesport in 2013.

Stine testified that the suspect confessed to him about the killing while both were in the Allegheny County Jail.

A jury, however, ultimately acquitted the defendant of all charges in the case.

Barger said that during his investigation he reviewed prison security video that showed Swann begin punching Stine in the face “without provocation.”

According to the complaint, “Stine never attempts to fight back.”

After the alleged attack, Barger said, Stine in the video can be seen bleeding from the face.

Swann, meanwhile, remains in the prison on $50,000 bail while awaiting his preliminary hearing set for Feb. 22 in the purse-snatching and stabbing case. He faces charges including aggravated assault and robbery.

Stine is awaiting trial in connection with the break-in at his former girlfriend’s apartment as well as a second Butler burglary in December.

He was temporarily transferred Wednesday from the Butler County Prison to the Clarion County Jail for a court hearing on a pair of bad check cases.