Robert Craft was sentence to death by the State of Florida for the murder of another inmate
According to court documents Robert Craft would find out that his cellmate at Columbia Correctional Institution in 2018 Darren Shira was in prison for allegedly molesting children
Robert Craft would fatally beat Darren Shira
Robert Craft would be convicted and sentenced to death
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Where Is Robert Craft Now
Robert Craft is incarcerated at Union Correctional Institution
Robert Craft Case
On May 16, 2018, Craft strangled and beat to death Darren W. Shira in the cell they shared at Columbia Correctional Institution. Following Shira’s murder, Craft confessed multiple times, including in two recorded statements to Special Agent Terrance Tyler of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and in letters to the state attorney’s office and the trial court.
The trial court accurately summarized Craft’s statements and the circumstances of the killing in the sentencing order, in pertinent part, as follows:
[T]he Defendant [admitted] that he "tortured" the victim "on purpose." He explained the various methods and manner in which he attacked the victim over approximately 30 minutes [and] ... [h]e admitted that he only stopped this relentless attack when the victim's feet turned purple, there was blood coming out of the victim's nose, and the victim's eyes were bulging. ...
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... The Defendant admitted that the victim did not pose a threat to him nor did the victim initiate the altercation. Rather, the Defendant admitted that the victim was lying on his bed when the Defendant initiated the attack by slapping the victim's feet. As soon as the 312 So.3d 48
victim sat up, the Defendant smacked or punched the victim's face and then launched into a physical attack that lasted, according to the Defendant, about a half hour.
The Defendant explained that he first attempted to crush the victim's neck but that this proved more difficult than in the movies, so he had to strangle the victim. The victim offered minimal resistance. Nonetheless, the Defendant "beat on" the victim with his fists, continued to choke the victim, and pulled the victim off of his bed and onto the floor where the Defendant used his feet against the wall as leverage to push down on the victim's throat. The Defendant also tore off the white stripe that runs down the side of the prison pants and tied this around the victim's neck. ...
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[Further,] ... the Defendant admitted that he had planned the murder. Specifically, he explained that, after learning that the victim was in prison for allegedly molesting children, the Defendant determined that he was going to kill the victim and immediately began planning the murder, which he committed a few days later. According to his own admission, the Defendant waited because he first wanted to inform his sister, via letter, that he was going to "catch a body." He also informed other inmates, prior to the killing, that he was going to kill the victim and was even offered a knife for the killing, which he refused. Another inmate, according to the Defendant, attempted to convince the Defendant not to do it. The Defendant also realized that the killing would likely be bloody, so he removed the victim's pants and donned them during the attack to prevent his pants from getting covered in blood. He further admitted that he had intended to sodomize the victim but that he could not do that. Moreover, while explaining to Special Agent Tyler that he had planned the murder for a few days, he stated that he wanted the murder to be "CCP" and even asked if it would be considered a hate crime because the victim was Jewish, gay, a child molester, and ex-Navy. The Defendant also told Special Agent Tyler that he had told the victim, while they were eating dinner [just before the killing], that this was the victim's last meal and that it was a pretty "f[***]ed up" last meal.[n.6]
[N.6] Even the discovery of the body was orchestrated by the Defendant: he told the inmate trustee that he had some trash, and when directed to slide it under the door of his cell, he stated that a dead body would not fit.(Footnote omitted.)
Craft was indicted for the victim’s first-degree murder under the theory of premeditated murder on October 1, 2018. Shortly thereafter, he began expressing his desires to quickly end his case, plead guilty, waive a penalty-phase jury, waive mitigation, and receive the death penalty—both in letters to the state attorney’s office and in a pro se “Motion for Faretta Hearing and Recusal of Counsel” filed in January 2019.
