Nathan Blose is escorted into a courtroom at the Montgomery County courthouse during his trial on strangulation and simple assault charges. Read more Vinny Vella / Staff

by Vinny Vella Published Aug. 6, 2025, 2:28 p.m. ET

A Montgomery County jury delivered a split verdict Wednesday against a state prison inmate accused of strangling his cellmate.

The jurors ruled that Nathan Blose, 41, attacked Jason Joyce inside the cell they shared at the State Corrections Institute at Phoenix in October and convicted him of simple assault.

But they found him not guilty of strangulation, ruling that prosecutors had failed to prove he had used a headlock to intentionally cut off Joyce’s oxygen supply.

During a trial this week before Montgomery County Court Judge Thomas Del Ricci, prose

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