Delaware County man submits guilty plea for assault of 2 Westmoreland prison guards

A Delaware County man serving a life prison sentence since 1989 pleaded guilty Monday to assaulting two guards last year at Westmoreland County Prison.

Prosecutors said Thomas Vile, 65, threw cups of urine and feces at guards last June as they attempted to extricate him from a cell. Vile was temporarily being housed at the county jail for an undisclosed reason. He is serving a life prison term following his conviction in the 1987 murder of his girlfriend in eastern Pennsylvania.

According to court records, Vile told guards he had an infectious disease and threatened them with urine if they attempted to remove him from his cell. When Vile refused multiple orders by guards to come to the cell door to be handcuffed, a special cell extraction team donned protective gear and physically removed him. Vile threw two cups of urine at the guards, investigators said.

Vile appeared before Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio on Monday via a video feed from the State Correctional Institution in Somerset, where he is serving his life sentence.

He was sentenced to serve nine to 18 months in jail for the assaults, but the judge ordered that penalty run concurrently with his life prison, meaning he will not spend additional time behind bars for the assaults.

Vile was convicted in the shotgun slaying of former girlfriend, Irene Darley-Pierce, daughter of Dick Darley, a pioneering television director and producer whose shows included “Space Patrol,” “The Mickey Mouse Club,” “The Rosemary Clooney Show” and others.

Vile reportedly fled to Canada after the shooting and was arrested in Toronto the next day. He remained jailed there for 10 months during a protracted extradition proceeding, as Canadian death-penalty opponents fought against his release, according to news reports.