WARTBURG, Tenn. (WOKI / WVLT) – A former inmate at the Morgan County Correctional Complex has been sentenced to additional prison time after being convicted of sexually assaulting a female correctional officer.
District Attorney General Russell Johnson announced that 24-year-old Montarius Douglas was sentenced Friday to two years in prison for sexual battery. The sentence will be served consecutively to the voluntary manslaughter sentence he was already serving, meaning Douglas will remain behind bars an additional two years.
According to prosecutors, the incident occurred in October 2024 while the correctional officer was performing routine duties in a common area of the prison. Authorities said Douglas grabbed and groped the officer outside his cell without her consent.
Johnson said security cameras inside the prison captured the assault. During court proceedings, Douglas admitted he grabbed the officer’s buttocks and acknowledged that he allowed what he described as his “fleshly desires” to control his actions.
A jury found Douglas guilty of sexual battery in February.
During the sentencing hearing, the correctional officer testified about the lasting impact the assault had on her personally and professionally. Prosecutors said she chose to pursue the case not only for herself but to support other correctional officers at Morgan County Correctional Complex and across the Tennessee Department of Correction.
In addition to the prison sentence, Douglas will be required to register as a sex offender.
Prosecutors also noted that Douglas faces separate charges involving contraband in a penal institution after three prison-made knives were allegedly discovered in his cell in December 2025. Those charges remain pending.
Douglas has since been transferred and is currently housed at the Northeast Correctional Complex.
District Attorney Johnson said the case underscores the importance of protecting correctional officers who work daily inside Tennessee’s prison system and ensuring offenders are held accountable for crimes committed while incarcerated.
