By Zack McDonald
The News Herald
PANAMA CITY — The trial of a prison guard accused of conspiring in an orchestrated attack on an inmate is approaching.
Christopher Blake Christmas, 32, has been scheduled to go before a jury Oct. 19 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, according to court records. Judge Robert Hinkle agreed to move the trial back from its September court case after attorneys said they needed more time to develop the case.
Christmas was one of five Florida Department of Corrections (DOC) officers indicted on charges of violating 31-year-old Jeremiah Tatum’s rights to not suffer cruel or unusual punishment at the Northwest Florida Reception Center (NWFRC) in Washington County during an act of jailhouse retaliation.
Christmas originally was set to take a guilty plea but reversed the course of the case at his June plea hearing, instead deciding to go to trial. The trial date has since been delayed.
All of the former NWFRC guards but Christmas have pleaded guilty to the charges. William Francis Finch, Robert Lewis Miller, James Fletcher Perkins and Dalton Edward Riley have admitted to accepting orders from former Capt. James Kirkland prior to slamming the inmate face-first to the ground and then falsifying reports of the incident. Kirkland died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound before he could be indicted in the case.
The arrests of the officers stemmed from an Aug. 5, 2014, incident, during which Tatum was left severely injured. Prosecutors claim Kirkland sought retaliation from a previous incident, where Tatum deflected pepper spray onto him. Kirkland then organized an incident in which Tatum was again sprayed, and Kirkland called in a five-man extradition team to escort Tatum to a decontamination shower, prosecutors allege. As the men equipped themselves for the extradition, Kirkland allegedly told the officers he would state that Tatum spit on him, leading up to the beating “to teach him a lesson,” according to court records.
Video from the prison showed Finch and Riley slamming Tatum’s face to the concrete floor while Tatum’s hands were restrained behind his back and his ankles restrained. The three other officers then jumped on Tatum and pinned him to the ground, according to arrest records.
Christmas said he didn’t hear the orders to attack Tatum and that he helped restrain his legs because “that’s my job,” he said.