Gloucester man convicted of beating inmate to death at Bridgewater facility

Crime

The man was found guilty of manslaughter Wednesday after he was initially indicted on a second-degree murder charge in 2021.

A Gloucester man was found guilty of manslaughter Wednesday after he beat another inmate to death while incarcerated at a state prison in 2021, according to court records.

Michael Robinson, 47, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, specifically a shod foot. He was initially indicted in Plymouth Superior Court on the charge of second-degree murder in September 2021, court filings showed.

Robinson was an inmate at the Massachusetts Treatment Center in Bridgewater when he fatally beat Scott Wonoski, 43, of Worcester, according to a press release from the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office. Just after 10:30 p.m. on April 13, 2021, corrections officers responded to a report of an altercation in a facility bathroom.

When officers arrived, they found Wonoski “unresponsive and bleeding,” according to the DA’s office. He received medical treatment on the scene before being transported to Good Samaritan Hospital in Brockton, where he died from his injuries just after 1 a.m.

The incident was captured on the facility’s video surveillance, which showed Robinson assaulting Wonoski and subsequently leaving the bathroom, the DA’s office said. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner later ruled Wonoski’s death a homicide, citing blunt force injuries to his head and torso.

Robinson is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 9, 2026, according to court records. His attorneys, Michael Bergeron and Liam Scully, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday night.