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LAKE CITY, Fla. — A Columbia County jury on Wednesday convicted an inmate of first-degree murder in the March 2012 killing of 24-year-old corrections officer Sgt. Ruben Thomas at Columbia Correctional Institution near Lake City.
After a one-week trial, it took the jury just over three hours to find Richard Franklin guilty.
Thomas was stabbed in the neck with a handmade weapon while conducting a cell check. A second guard was treated and released from a hospital after being injured in the attack.
Franklin, who has been in prison since 1995 serving a life sentence for murder, could face a death sentence in the penalty phase of this case begins next Tuesday.
Full story: Jury convicts Richard Franklin of killing corrections officer Sgt. Ruben Thomas