Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, Ohio
End of Watch: Wednesday, April 14, 1993
Age: 40
Tour of Duty: 2 years
Badge Number: Not available
Cause of Death: Assault
Date of Incident: April 14, 1993
Weapon Used: Person
Suspect Info: Sentenced to death
Correction Officer Robert Vallandingham was killed when he was strangled by inmates during a prison riot at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility that involved 450 inmates.
He and several other officers had been taken hostage during the riot and had been held for four days before Officer Vallandingham was murdered and his body thrown into the prison yard. During the 11-day siege, nine inmates, alleged snitches, were executed. It was the longest prison riot in U.S. history that eventually settled into one of the longest sieges in U.S. prison history. More than 1000 National Guard members were activated, and more than 100 state troopers.
Five inmates, 24, 26, 30, 36, and 47, were sentenced to death for Officer Vallandingham's murder. In 2021, four were awaiting their execution dates. The youngest of the five is to be executed on November 16, 2023.
Officer Vallandingham was a United States Army Vietnam War veteran and had served with the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction for two years. He was survived by his wife and son.
He is buried at Greenlawn Cemetery in Portsmouth, Ohio.