Judge Sentences Man to 30 Years In Fatal Hotel Beating

A Baltimore County judge sentenced a man to 30 years in prison Tuesday in the beating death of an Ocean City man at a local hotel.

Randall Russell, 45, admitted punching Richard Eaton, 54, on Halloween night 2023 but said Eaton appeared fine when he left him in a room at the Red Roof Inn in Timonium. Russell testified at his trial in December that Eaton was irritated because Russell wouldn't leave the hotel room.

Eaton, a bartender from Ocean City, died two weeks later at Shock Trauma from a subdural hematoma — bleeding in the brain.

Russell, a barber from Havre De Grace, recorded himself in the room after the assault saying he punched Eaton “Mike Tyson-style” with a “right-hand left-hand combination— sleepy time."

Judge Thomas Tompsett told Russell Tuesday that he had many opportunities to leave the hotel that day but chose not to.

"The court's sentence is reflective of the amount of hurt you just sent out into the community, unnecessarily so," Judge Tompsett said at the sentencing hearing.

Russell was initially charged with first-degree murder but Tompsett found him guilty of the lesser murder charge after a bench trial in December.