Photo. Courtesy of Miami Dade / Ronald Connor, Christopher Rolon, Kirk Walton
Four South Florida prison guards have been charged for second-degree murder after allegedly beating 60-year-old inmate Ronald Gene Ingram to death.
Three of the guards, Ronald Connor (24), Christopher Rolon (29), and Kirk Walton (34), were arrested and charged on Apr. 28. The fourth, Jeremy Godbolt (29), was arrested on Apr. 29, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said at a recent news conference.
A statement from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) indicated that Connor, Rolon, and Walton, were removing Ingram from a Miami-Dade County mental health unit on Feb. 14. before he was beaten. They reportedly had to transfer him to a prison in North Florida.
“After the inmate was removed, even though he was in handcuffs and compliant with officer commands, agents say the officers began to beat him. The inmate was beaten so badly he had to be carried to the transport van,” FDLE said.
He was reportedly found dead on a bench at the van–after suffering internal bleeding, a punctured lung, and injuries to his face and torso–during a stop in Ocala. He was initially placed in a secure compartment of the vehicle.
Officials also said that Ingram previously threw urine at the men, provoking the incident.
Florida Department of Corrections records has shown that the elderly man was serving a life sentence due to a first-degree murder conviction in 1986. FDLE reportedly refused to identify him for weeks.
Connor, Rolon, and Walton appeared in court on Apr. 29, where they were ordered to be held without bond by Miami-Dade Judge Mindy Glazer.
The former prison guards were not only charged with second-degree murder but according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, they were additionally charged with aggravated battery of an elderly adult and cruel treatment of a detainee and conspiracy.
“What happened, in this case, is completely unacceptable and is not a representation of our system or of Dade Correctional Institution as a whole,” said Florida Department of Corrections Secretary Ricky Dixon. “The staff involved in this case failed, and as an agency, we will not stand for this.”
He also said he was disappointed in the staff members involved in the brutal beating.
“There is just no words to express my absolute disappointment in the staff members involved in this incident,” he reportedly said. “Based on the facts presented today, these men violated public trust, and they violated the trust of those that work alongside them.”