SOUTH OF PUNTA GORDA – The state launched another investigation of the local prison, Charlotte Correctional Institution, after a second inmate death from 2014 was ruled a homicide.
The Florida Department of Corrections verified its Office of the Inspector General actually is conducting two administrative investigations involving different policies and procedures at Charlotte , as questionable circumstances led to the death of not only inmate Matthew Walker in April 2014, but also Damion Foster about a month later.
Foster, newly released state documents show, was spitting up blood toward guards after a cell extraction, so a cloth spit mask was placed over his mouth. Foster essentially suffocated after swallowing his own blood, authorities say.
The Charlotte Sun made several public records requests earlier this month after noticing Foster’s manner of death suddenly changed from “pending” to “homicide” on the FDC’s “transparency database of inmate deaths.”