PUNTA GORDA — A grand jury has indicted an inmate at the Charlotte Correctional Institution on first-degree murder charges for reportedly killing another inmate, the State Attorney’s Office said Friday.
William Tulenko, a convicted murderer serving a life sentence in the Florida State prison system, is accused of strangling another inmate to death in February at the state correctional facility south of Punta Gorda.
Tulenko and the victim, James Lindsey Howze, were the only two people in the cell at the time of the killing, prosecutors say.
Prosecutors presented the case Friday to a grand jury at the Charlotte County Justice Center in Punta Gorda. In order to file a first-degree murder charge against someone, prosecutors need to convince a grand jury that there is enough evidence to support the charge. Grand jury proceedings are seldom made public.
Friday’s grand jury’s decision was released at a press conference at the Justice Center. Amira Fox, the State Attorney for the 20th Judicial Circuit, made the announcement, saying she intends to seek the death penalty in the case.