A former inmate at Auburn Correctional Facility has been sentenced to two additional five-year prison terms for attacking two correction officers in a 2023 assault.
Yakez Cornett, previously incarcerated on a 12-year sentence for a 2017 shooting in Ithaca, received the new prison term Tuesday in Cayuga County Court. The new sentence follows his January guilty plea to two counts of Assault in the Second Degree.
The incident occurred on August 14, 2023, in the South Yard of the Auburn Correctional Facility. Cornett assaulted two correction officers, both of whom required treatment at the emergency room. One officer sustained a concussion, while the other was treated for neck pain.
District Attorney Brittany Grome Antonacci announced the sentencing, confirming that the five-year terms will run concurrently with each other, but consecutively to Cornett’s original sentence. That means Cornett will serve the new sentence after completing the original one stemming from his 2017 Tompkins County convictions.
At the time of the 2023 assault, Cornett was serving time for a violent shooting on April 9, 2017. He had been convicted of Assault in the First Degree and Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree after shooting a man five times in Ithaca Commons following a verbal dispute.
Chief Assistant District Attorney Christopher Valdina prosecuted the case.
Cornett will also face five years of post-release supervision after completing his prison term.
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