Three Miami-Dade Corrections Officers Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison for Inmate’s Fatal Beating

Three Miami-Dade correctional officers received 20-year prison sentences after pleading guilty to the deadly beating of 60-year-old inmate Ronald Ingram in 2022. The officers, Christopher Rolon, Kirk Walton, and Jeremy Godbolt, were among four charged in connection to Ingram’s death. He was found with over 20 broken ribs and internal bleeding.

Prosecutors alleged the officers attacked Ingram after he threw urine at them. Walton, who had initially accepted a plea deal, argued in court, “I’m not guilty of murder,” pleading with the judge to withdraw his plea. Earlier this year, Walton, Godbolt, and Rolon agreed to testify in the trial of the fourth officer, Ronald Connor, in exchange for reduced sentences. After their testimony, jurors acquitted Connor of murder, finding him guilty only of negligence, resulting in his release.

Following Connor’s acquittal, both Walton and Rolon requested to withdraw their plea agreements. Judge Teresa Pooler denied the motions, stating, “You had every opportunity in the world… That is not my problem.” She also emphasized that if not for the plea deals and jury’s verdict, she would have considered life sentences for all involved.

Godbolt’s family reacted emotionally to the sentencing, with his mother, Quinsette Godbolt, stating, “My son would never intentionally harm or take someone’s life.”

Judge Pooler condemned the officers’ actions, calling the crime “heinous and horrible,” and described Ingram’s death as “the worst way possible… alone, in pain, in a prison vehicle, chained up.”

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