A drunk-driving dad was beaten to death just hours after being booked into a Pennsylvania prison to start his 90-day sentence, according to authorities.
Erick Gainer, 41, was found badly battered with a swollen brain in his cell in Cumberland County on Oct. 23 after a fellow inmate reported hearing him screaming “Stop!” and “Help! What did I do to you?,” according to court docs obtained by the Patriot-News.
“It wasn’t even 24 hours from when I dropped him [off at prison] when I got the phone call from the warden,” Gainer’s grieving girlfriend, Tessa Shorb, told WHP of the “biggest dorky dad-joke teller ever.”
The father of one was sentenced on Oct. 21 for DUI for a November crash in which his car veered down an embankment in Silver Spring Township. The bartender had no reason to fear for his life when he was dropped off at the jail the next day, his girlfriend said.
“I told him, ‘Don’t worry. It is one of the safest jails, the nicest jails. You’re going to get through it,’” Shorb said.
However, his cellmate — Dangelo Nowlin, 33, of California — allegedly hurled him to the floor and killed him with his bare hands the morning after he was booked in, according to officials.
Another cellmate reported hearing punches around 11:50 a.m. along with screams, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
The inmate reportedly saw Nowlin toss the “defenseless” Gainer off the upper bunk and onto the cell floor, where he began punching and kicking him, according to the affidavit.
Gainer was asleep when the attack started, and no motive was given by police for the seemingly unprovoked attack. He was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery but died from his injuries around 6:30 p.m. Oct. 24, the day after he was attacked and two days after arriving at the jail.
“This was just cold-blooded murder,” alleged Gainer’s brother, Lonnie Gainer. “He took a kind, gentle soul, Erick wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“He took the better part of me,” the grieving brother said. “If I could trade places with Erick, I would have in a heartbeat.”
Nowlin was charged with criminal homicide.
He was serving time for trespassing for refusing to leave a truck stop — allegedly punching someone in the head when he was asked to leave.
