BATON ROUGE - A former East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office deputy who was arrested alongside two other corrections officers for beating and pepper-spraying a handcuffed inmate accepted a plea deal Tuesday, avoiding prison time. 

Elijah Christopher was arrested for malfeasance in office and three counts of simple battery related to incidents that happened inside East Baton Rouge Parish Prison in 2024. Deputies Julius Conner and Noah Jenkins were indicted on the same charges. 

The WBRZ Investigative Unit previously reported that a video of the assault was discovered on Christopher's phone while deputies were looking into him on a separate allegation. 

The video shows Christopher, Conner and Jenkins spraying a handcuffed detainee with pepper spray while in and out of his cell. The men laugh, and Christopher jumps up and down with excitement as it happens. Christopher also hits the inmate in the face twice. The inmate did not resist or attempt to fight back.

On Tuesday, Christopher pleaded guilty to malfeasance in office. He was sentenced to five years in prison, which were suspended, and instead placed on active supervised probation for three years. Court minutes say he was ordered to pay court costs and fines, is not allowed to own a firearm and had his law enforcement POST certification revoked.