BOSCOBEL — Charges are pending against a Wisconsin Secure Program Facility inmate after an attack on a guard Christmas Eve.

A female 21-year-old guard was stabbed in the face three times with a pencil and suffered a broken orbital socket, according to prison sources.

The alleged assailant is Dennis L. Marsh, 57, who is serving a life sentence for shooting his wife to death in Ozaukee County in 1991.

The unit where the assault occurred was locked down while the state Department of Corrections and the Grant County Sheriff’s Department investigated the assault.