Correctional Officer Darla K. Lathrem, 38
Summary of Offense:
Stephen Smith, Dwight Eaglin and Michael Jones were indicted for the first-degree murder of Officer Lathram at Charlotte Correctional Institution (CCI) during an escape attempt. The defendants were tried separately. Stephen Smith and two other inmates at CCI began formulating an escape plan in early 2003. The three men were part of a small inmate work crew of other CCI prisoners who were working on renovations to the inmate dormitories. This construction work allowed the men temporary access to a number of tools appropriate to plumbing and welding. The three men had planned to join various ladders together with bracing materials to create a ladder-bridge that would span the length of the two perimeter fences. It was planned that Eaglin would use the ladder-bridge to overcome the first perimeter fence and wait for a guard truck to pass. He would then attack the driver with a hammer from the tool cache, providing the inmates with transport. In discussing the plan with other inmates, Smith bragged that he would kill any correctional officer guarding them and that he would be famous for doing so. Smith also preferred to escape when a female officer was supervising the crew so that he could rape her.
On June 11, 2003, Smith, Eaglin, and Jones were working a construction detail that occasionally worked in the evening. Because these evening crews were composed of only five or six individuals, only one guard was assigned to supervise. Officer Lathram, a female correctional officer, was assigned to supervise the work detail on this particular evening. At 4:00 p.m., Officer Lathram took the five-person crew – the three defendants and two other inmates – to work in the dormitory for the evening. At 8:30 p.m., Lathram performed a head count. Just after the head count, Eaglin beat up inmate Charles Fuston and locked him in a cell. Eaglin then returned with a sledgehammer and beat him to death. Fuston knew of the escape plan and had decided against it.
After the first murder, the three men told Officer Lathram that they required something from a locked mop closet. Officer Lathram took them to the closet and while she appropriated the key, Eaglin struck her twice in the head with a sledgehammer. They then took the officer’s radio and keys and while Eaglin locked her body in the closet, Smith and Jones left to assemble the ladders for the escape. Before joining the others, Eaglin found the other inmate of the work detail and incapacitate him with a separate hammer.
The three inmates then reunited at the interior perimeter fence. In their attempt to lift the ladder-bridge, it collapsed and fell against the fence, setting off an alarm. Officers responding to the alarm witnessed the three men trying to escape. Eaglin was found between the perimeter fences; Smith was climbing the ladder against the interior fence; and Jones was standing nearby within the interior fence. Officer Lathram’s body was found in the locked mop closet, the sledgehammer on the floor beside her. The officers also discovered the other two inmates of the work detail, one of whom was injured, and Fuston, who was found dead in a locked cell.
Smith was sentenced to death in Charlotte County on August 18, 2006.
Co-defendant information:
Dwight Eaglin was sentenced to death on March 31, 2006 for his role in the murder of Officer Lathram. For more on Eaglin, see: http://www.cncpunishment.com/forums/...ghlight=eaglin
Michael Jones was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty for his role in the murder of Officer Lathram.
Bookmarks