MIAMI — A fourth Florida correctional officer has now been arrested and charged with the murder of an inmate.
According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the murder happened on February 14 at Dade Correctional Institution in Miami-Dade County when an inmate was scheduled to be transferred to another correctional institution. During the removal, law enforcement says the inmate threw urine on one of the officers.
FDLE says the inmate was then handcuffed and beaten by four officers. Christopher Rolon, 29, Kirk Walton, 34, and Ronald Connor, 24, were arrested on Thursday morning. A fourth officer, 28-year-old Jeremy Godbolt, was taken into custody on Friday afternoon.
The inmate was beaten so badly that he had to be carried to the van that was taking him to the new facility, according to FDLE.
On the way there, the van made a stop in Ocala where the inmate was found dead, laying on the bench inside the van. According to authorities, the cause of death was a punctured lung which lead to internal bleeding.
In a news conference on Friday, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said the actions of the officers have no place in Florida's correctional system.
"Individuals who are sentenced to incarceration by our criminal courts — they have lost their freedom but not their basic rights," Rundle said.
The state attorney would provide surveillance video that shows the inmate being escorted by two of the correctional officers inside the facility, walking on his own. However, video outside the facility suddenly shows the inmate needing the assistance of the officers to be placed into the van.
The four correctional officers have been booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in Miami-Dade County.
