State prisoner pleads guilty in cellmate’s death

Mitchell takes plea for voluntary manslaughter

CLEARFIELD -- A state prison inmate has pleaded guilty for the death of his cellmate while they were both incarcerated at the state prison in Houtzdale.

In October, state police charged Jacob Michael Mitchell, 34, with criminal homicide and related charges in connection with the death of Garrick Bloom.

Bloom, 48, who had been convicted of multiple child rape charges, was found unresponsive in his cell at 11:03 p.m. Aug. 29, according to previous reports. Efforts to revive him were unsuccessful.

A trooper described Bloom as having bruises all over his face and markings on his neck that indicated he had been choked by some sort of string.

Earlier this month during jury selection in the case, Mitchell signed a plea agreement in which he agreed to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter with the other charges withdrawn.

At that time, he was sentenced by President Judge Fredric J. Ammerman to 7.5 to 15 years in state prison.

According to the affidavit of probable cause, Mitchell told investigators that he was "passed out in his bunk" when he was awakened by Bloom touching him inappropriately.

He explained he then jumped out of bed and began assaulting Bloom. He got Bloom on the ground and then Bloom bit his finger, causing him to go "into a rage."

Mitchell stated he hit the call button for the guards as he was beating up Bloom and then hit it again after he was done assaulting him. He told the guards, "I think he's dead," according to the complaint.

Mitchell was serving a sentence of two to six years from Cambria County in July 2014 where he was convicted of felony theft in one case and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle in another.

He was also charged with four counts of aggravated assault in relation to an incident on Sept. 16, 2014, at another prison.

For this, he pleaded guilty to one count of simple assault for which he received a 12-to-24-month consecutive sentence.

He was moved to Houtzdale in December 2014, according to online court documents. Currently, he is in State Correctional Institution at Smithfield in Huntingdon.

Bloom, formerly of Shippenville, was serving a 40- to 80-year sentence that began in October 2019 after he was convicted of raping a child in Clarion County.

He had been at SCI Houtzdale since Dec. 5, 2019.