RANKIN COUNTY, Miss. (WJTV) – An inmate at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility (CMCF) has been sentenced for the sexual battery of a corrections employee.

Madison and Rankin Counties’ District Attorney Bubba Bramlett announced that 23-year-old Ernest Mayfield was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Bramlett said Mayfield is a habitual offender with two prior convictions of methamphetamine possession.

On September 17, 2021, Mayfield, who had recently been booked into the CMCF, broke into a female employee’s office at the correctional facility and sexually assaulted her.

The case went to trial on April 30, 2024. During the two-day trial, the state called the victim, multiple forensic experts, and other witnesses to the stand before the jury returned a guilty verdict.

“I appreciate all the hard work from both my office and multiple law enforcement agencies to secure a guilty verdict in this matter. We are glad to put this lifelong habitual criminal in prison for the next thirty years,” said Bramlett.