A Florida State Prison inmate convicted in 2022 of stabbing a cellmate lost an appeal before Florida’s First District Court of Appeal.
Zeth Thomas Trawick had appealed the sentence issued by Judge James M. Colaw after a Bradford County jury found the 40-year-old guilty of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and possession of contraband in a state correctional institution. According to court papers, the victim and defendant, both inmates at Florida State Prison, arranged to fight in a shower area after an argument. The two inmates agreed not to bring weapons to the fight. However, during the brawl, after the victim landed several blows to Trawick’s head, the defendant brandished an improvised knife and stabbed the victim several times in the groin area. The victim was flown to Shands UF in critical condition and later recovered.
Colaw sentenced Trawick to 15 years, to run consecutively after his life sentence for second-degree murder. In 2009, Trawick was sentenced to life for killing a man at a DeLand convenience store.
