This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Manti • A judge on Wednesday ordered a Gunnison prison inmate to serve up to 15 years for the near-fatal stabbing of a fellow prisoner in 2009.

The sentence might seem hollow since Donald Bert Richardson is already serving life without the possibility of parole for a double homicide he committed in 2008. But Richardson's guilty plea to second-degree felony aggravated assault likely has consequences for the remainder of his life.

Since his murder convictions, Richardson has wanted to be transferred to Oregon to be closer to family, said prosecutor Ross Blackham of the Sanpete County Attorney's Office.

"This, in my mind, will make it more difficult," Blackham said. "He may never get out of Utah."

There may also be other consequences imposed by Department of Corrections officials. After the assault, Richardson was placed in a single-bed cell and allowed out for only a few hours a week. He is not allowed to mingle with other inmates, said Corrections spokesman Steve Gehrke.

"He is still in a single cell," Gehrke said, adding that other restrictions could last indefinitely. "After an incident like this, we have to be careful when someone's shown they are willing to harm someone else."

Richardson entered his plea in 6th District Court as part of an agreement with prosecutors.

In December 2009, Richardson entered the cell of inmate Alan Richard Grant, stabbing and slicing him with a shank he had fashioned, Blackham said. Speaking in court, Grant called his stabbing "beyond understanding."

"I'm willing to forgive him for doing this, but he needs to understand that justice needs to be served," Grant said.

Richardson has never acknowledged his motive for stabbing Grant, who is serving a sentence of 15 years to life on child sex abuse charges.

At the time of the assault, Richardson was about a year into a sentence of life without parole for beating and strangling his former girlfriend, Annette Young, 46, at her Fairview home and then fatally shooting Martin Cannon, 39, in the doorway of his Mt. Pleasant home.