A state appeals court panel has refused to void a prisoner’s conviction for a brutal attempt to steal contraband tobacco hidden in another inmate’s rectum.

The Superior Court decision outlined in an opinion by Judge Paula Francisco Ott sinks Maurice Wakefield II’s bid to overturn the 9- to 18-year prison term he received for the attack.

Wakefield’s conviction stems from an incident in E Block at the Blair County Prison on the night of March 16, 2017.

Wakefield, 26, of Hollidaysburg, and several cohorts knew the other prisoner had tobacco hidden in a plastic bag inside his rectum. So, they demanded that he give it to them, investigators said.

The other inmate tried to comply and pass the package naturally, Ott noted. When that didn’t work, his tormenters tried to remove it by force.

The tools they used were two toothbrushes, the judge wrote. That invasion only left the other inmate battered and bloody and didn’t succeed in freeing the tobacco.

When the inmate did finally pass the tobacco, he tossed it to his attackers. Then despite their threats, he told the police what had happened.

A county jury convicted Wakefield on charges of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, conspiracy, aggravated assault, assault by a prisoner, making terroristic threats, unlawful restraint, simple assault and reckless endangerment in April 2018.

In denying Wakefield’s appeal, Ott turned aside his claim that he deserved a new trial because the county judge at his first trial didn’t remind the jurors they could take notes when his co-defendant testified.

She also rejected Wakefield’s argument that the jury shouldn’t have been shown prison surveillance camera footage of a related assault on the cellmate of the inmate who had the hidden tobacco. The conspirators believed, incorrectly, that the cellmate was holding the tobacco and attacked him before assaulting the inmate who had the concealed contraband, Ott noted.