MANSFIELD — A former Mansfield Correctional Institution inmate changed his mind Tuesday morning about pleading guilty to allegedly beating a female corrections officer.
That means the felonious assault case against Tyler Garrett, 29, will proceed to trial in Richland County Common Pleas Court.
The inmate from Hamilton County allegedly beat the officer with his fists in May 2025, according to Richland County Prosecutor Jodie Schumacher.
The victim suffered multiple injuries, including a concussion and broken bones, as well as multiple stitches on her face.
Garrett has since been moved to the Warren Correctional Institution, according to the Ohio Dept. of Rehabilitation and Correction website.
He was indicted on multiple counts by a Richland County grand jury in October, allegations that included the specification Garrett is a “repeat violent offender” due to previous felony convictions in his former home county in southwest Ohio.
According to online records, Garrett was in court on Tuesday to change his plea in the case, represented by defense attorney Jennifer Harmon.
But during a courtroom discussion between Garrett and Richland County Common Pleas Court Judge Phil Naumoff, there were questions regarding the defendant’s understanding of his legal rights in the proceeding.
Thus, Naumoff said he would not accept a plea and would set the matter for trial.
According to a story published at WHSV in January 2024, Garrett pleaded guilty to rape, aggravated burglary and kidnapping.
On Aug. 14, 2021, Garrett broke into a home where a 17-year-old was asleep on the downstairs couch, then-Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said at the time.
Garrett held the teen at gunpoint as he raped her, Deters said, and then forced the teen upstairs and into the homeowner’s bedroom and woke them up.
Deters said Garrett then took the rape victim, the homeowner and another teenager downstairs, where he held them at gunpoint, forcing them to the ground.
Garrett demanded money, which the victims said they did not have, Deters said.
DNA from the rape kit came back as a match for Garrett’s DNA, Deters told WHSV. Garrett previously served five years in jail for burglary and robbery convictions, according to Deters.
He was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Schumacher said her office has “taken a hard look” at crimes being committed at state prisons in Mansfield — MANCI and also the Richland Correctional Institution.
(Below is a PDF showing an October 2025 Richland County grand jury indictment returned against former MANCI inmate Tyler Garrett.)
Earlier this month, inmate David Wagner avoided a possible life sentence by changing his plea Friday in a case involving the death of a MANCI inmate.
According to a story in the Mansfield News Journal, Wagner pleaded guilty to an amended charge of voluntary manslaughter and felonious assault, both with repeat violent offender specifications, and tampering with evidence.
He originally had been charged with murder. James Johnson, 51, was beaten to death in his MANCI cell on June 2, 2023. Wagner is scheduled to be sentenced in March.
Authorities investigated three MANCI inmate deaths as homicides during a six-month period in 2023, according to another News Journal story.
Schumacher, who took over as county prosecutor in 2023, said alleged crimes at the prisons are often presented to grand juries.
“We are prosecuting the assaults on the inmates, the assaults on the corrections officers, the illegal conveyances, the possessions, the deadly weapons that are in there,” she said.
Schumacher said penalties allowed under state law make punishing long-term prison inmates more difficult for more minor things like drug possession behind bars.
“For the possession of drugs, for example, does it even make sense? Can you add onto a (prison) sentence that they are already in prison for? When you look at the purposes and principles of sentencing, (it’s to) protect and to punish.
“Can you really punish? We have a lot of ‘lifers’ housed here locally, and the scary thing, I think, for those corrections officers is the attitude from some of the inmates is, ‘What else are you going to do to me?’ unfortunately,” Schumacher said.
“That’s scary for all those corrections officers. And when you look at the ratios of the corrections officers to inmates in any pod … it’s ridiculous,” the prosecutor said.