PUNTA GORDA — A new trial for Dwight Eaglin has run into another delay, more than 20 years after his original conviction for killing an officer at the Charlotte Correctional Institution.
However, court records show his attorneys have successfully motioned for some documents from his previous trial to be marked “confidential.”
Eaglin, 49, is the last surviving of three defendants who were convicted of killing Darla Lathrem, a corrections officer at the state prison south of Punta Gorda, and prisoner Charlie Furston.
Lathrem was the first female corrections officer in Florida to die in the line of duty. She was also the first corrections officer killed at CCI.
The 2003 killings took place during an attempted escape by Eaglin and two other prisoners, Michael Jones and Stephen Smith.
All three were convicted and sentenced to death in 2006. However, the death sentences were paused after an appeals court found an error with the jury instructions for sentencing.
The appeals court noted the jury vote for the death penalty had not been unanimous, that is now required by state law.