ANGOLA- A long-term employee at the State Penitentiary was attacked by an inmate serving a life sentence Monday.

Prison officials did not release the correctional officer's name, but said the woman was recovering at an area hospital and was able to communicate.

According to a prison spokesperson, Warner Wiley smashed the correctional officer in the head with a serving pan while she was sitting at her desk. The attack happened at about 5 o'clock Monday evening, just before the officer was about to leave for the day.

Wiley was working as an orderly in the main prison facility at the time, and the office door was unlocked.

Wiley was convicted of murder and had been at Angola since the late 1980's. Because of the attack, he was moved to Camp J, the prison jail.

An Angola medical team triaged the guard and rushed her to the hospital by ambulance.

Louisiana State Penitentiary investigators and the West Feliciana Sheriff's Office are handling the case. Charges will be pressed against Wiley, and the district attorney would have to decide if he would be charged with a crime.

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