This morning in Charlotte County, Dwight T. Eaglin, was sentenced to death for the murder of Correctional Officer Darla Lathrem and for the murder of inmate Charlie Fuston.
Cold Case Homicide Unit Assistant State Attorney Dan Feinberg, Deputy Chief Assistant State Attorney Shannon Doolity, and Assistant State Attorney Kristan Burns, prosecuted the case.
The defendant murdered Correctional Officer Darla Lathrem and inmate Charlie Fuston in 2003, during an escape attempt from the Charlotte Correctional Institution. They were both beaten to death with hammers. Correctional Officer Darla Lathrem was supervising a work crew at night when she was lured away and murdered.
The defendant was sentenced to death in 2006 for the murders but following a change in Florida’s current death penalty law, his lawyers challenged his sentence. He was granted a new penalty phase, which was held in January.
The jury recommended death on both murder counts and today the Honorable Judge Shannon H. McFee followed the jury’s recommendation with a sentence of the death penalty on each count.
“The details in this case are horrendous. This was an extremely brutal and violent attack. The death penalty is the right sentence,” said State Attorney Amira Fox.
At the time of the murders in Charlotte County, the defendant was serving a life sentence for murdering a man outside of a club in Pinellas County in 1998.
Samantha Syoen – State Attorney’s Office Communications Director