WEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - Four Florida State Corrections officers have found themselves on the other side of the law accused of murdering a county inmate.
Florida Department of Law Enforcement officials on Thursday announced charges against Ronald Connor, Jeremy Godbolt, Christopher Rolon and Kirk Walton following the results of their months-long investigation of the Dade Correctional Institution, located south of Florida City.
The corrections officers face charges of second-degree murder, cruel treatment of a detainee and aggravated abuse of an elderly person.
Back in February, investigators said the inmate reportedly threw urine on an officer. The corrections officers handcuffed the inmate and began to beat him.
The FDLE said the inmate was beaten so severely that he couldn’t even walk. He was carried to a transport van to be taken to another facility.
Hours later and hundreds of miles away, investigators said, the inmate was discovered dead and alone in the back of the van.
The Miami Herald identified the victim as 60-year-old Ronald Ingram.
In a statement, an FDLE spokesperson wrote, “The medical examiner determined the death was caused by a punctured lung leading to internal bleeding. In addition, the inmate had injuries to his face and torso consistent with a beating.”
Connor, Rolon and Walton were booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on Thursday.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle issued a statement that reads in part, “Individuals who are sentenced to incarceration by our criminal courts have lost their freedom but not their basic rights. Inmates should not be subject to forms of ‘back alley’ justice.”
This is not the first time the Dade Correctional Institution has been the center of a detainee death investigation. Back in 2012, Darren Rainey died after guards at the Dade Correctional Institution reportedly placed him in a shower and locked him there under hot water for hours as punishment. The 50-year-old mentally ill inmate died.
FDLE officials said they have spent more than 1,700 hours investigating this case and conducted dozens of interviews.
Fernandez Rundle is scheduled to discuss the corrections officers’ arrest and the investigation during a news conference on Friday.
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