WINK Digital Team
•6/19/2026
PUNTA GORDA, Fla. (WINK)— A Charlotte County judge re-sentenced Dwight Thomas Eaglin to death for two murders that happened more than two decades ago.
The sentencing hearing for Dwight Thomas Eaglin began just after 9:00 a.m. Friday in Charlotte County court.
Eaglin was re-sentenced for the 2003 killings of Correctional Officer Darla Lathrem and inmate Charlie Fuston at Charlotte Correctional Institution.
The sentences will run concurrently.
Prosecutors say Eaglin beat Lathrem and Fuston to death with a hammer during an escape attempt from the prison in 2003.
Lathrem was supervising a work crew at night when she was lured away and killed, according to court records.
Eaglin was first sentenced to death in 2006 for the murders, but his lawyers later challenged the sentence following changes in Florida’s death penalty sentencing requirements. He was granted a new penalty phase trial.
At the time of the killings, Eaglin was already serving a life sentence for a 1998 murder in Pinellas County in which he cut the throat of a man and stabbed him to death outside a club.
In January, a jury recommended the death penalty for both murders, voting 11-1 for the murder of Lathrem and 12-0 for the murder of Fuston.
Janet Best, the sister of Darla Lathrem, released a statement after the jury's recommendation in January.
"Our family is grateful that jurors made the appropriate recommendation," Best said. "And we look forward to the Judge imposing that recommendation, so that justice will finally be served. We miss Darla very much."
State Attorney Amira Fox also spoke on the case following the jury's recommendation.
"We will never let up when it comes to seeking justice, not after a day, a year, or decades," Fox said. "This was a heinous crime and clearly a death penalty case. We will never stop in our quest for justice for victims."
The defense has already filed paperwork to appeal the re-sentencing.
