PLYMOUTH — A Gloucester man convicted of beating to death a fellow inmate was sentenced Friday to a decade in prison for the crime.
Michael Robinson, now 47, was sentenced in Plymouth Superior Court to serve 10-12 years in state prison for the beating death of Scott Wonoski, 43, of Worcester, the office of Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz said.
The Commonwealth had requested that Robinson serve 18-10 years in state prison to be followed by 10 years of probation.
On Dec. 17, after a six-day trial in Plymouth Superior Court, a jury deliberated 11 hours before finding Robinson guilty of charges of involuntary manslaughter and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, a shod foot.
The charges stem from an incident at the Massachusetts Treatment Center in Bridgewater on April 13, 2021. At approximately 10:38 p.m.that day, corrections officers at the center responded to a report of an altercation in a bathroom. Officers arrived to find Wonoski unresponsive and bleeding. Wonoski received medical treatment on scene before being transported to Good Samaritan Hospital in Brockton where he was pronounced dead of his injuries.
The state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled the manner of the death was homicide, and the cause was blunt force injuries of the head and torso.
The jury was shown video surveillance which was obtained from the facility and captured the incident. It showed Robinson physically assault the victim and then exit the bathroom.
At the time of the deadly altercation, Robinson was serving a six-year sentence following his conviction in the 2018 robbery of the Institute for Savings branch on Parker Street in Gloucester. At the time of his arrest as suspect in the bank robbery, Robinson had been sought by Gloucester and state police for at least two weeks for cutting off his GPS monitoring bracelet, part of his probation for a 2014 kidnapping conviction.
Robinson had previously been sentenced to two years in jail in 2003 after his conviction of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14. In June 2015, Robinson was sentenced to five years in jail after his conviction on the charge of assault and battery on a child under 14.
The Massachusetts Treatment Center is a medium security facility separately housing criminally sentenced male inmates identified as sex offenders and those who have been civilly committed as sexually dangerous persons, according to Mass.gov.
Assistant District Attorneys Kevin O’Leary and Jason Herron prosecuted this latest case, which was investigated by Massachusetts State Police Detectives assigned to the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office and the Massachusetts Department of Correction.