JOHNSTOWN — A Clearfield County mother is suing SCI-Pine Grove and jail officials after her son, a nonviolent offender, was given an attempted murderer as a cellmate – and that prisoner killed him.



Mona Lisa Stewart of Luthersburg filed the wrongful death suit recently in U.S. District Court in Johnstown.



Stewart’s son, Jayson Stewart, was serving a six-month term at the prison in Indiana County on a parole violation: An unauthorized visit with his girlfriend.



A records check shows he’d faced an array of charges including receiving stolen property, criminal mischief, theft and false ID to police. Counts of aggravated and simple assault were withdrawn.



The prison housed him in 2010 in a 7-by-15-foot cell with a man only identified as William Brown. The suit said Brown had been convicted of wounding a police officer during a robbery attempt in Philadelphia.



Further, while in custody, the suit said, “Brown had previously stabbed or threatened to stab a corrections officer.”



Before rooming with Stewart, the suit said, the volatile Brown was put on “Z status.” The lawsuit said that means “the inmate presents a clear and present danger to other inmates and therefore is required to be housed in a cell by himself.”