Jury Finds Man Guilty in Deadly Red Roof Inn Beating

A man who recorded himself bragging about punching a friend “Mike Tyson-style” at a local hotel was found guilty of second-degree murder in a Baltimore County court Friday.

Randall Russell 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.

Security video showed Eaton staggering out of the room at the hotel at 111 W Timonium Rd. about three hours later, falling several times and hitting his head on the concrete walkway.

The defense pointed to evidence that Eaton was a habitual drug user and argued he could have fallen because of drug impairment, not the earlier assault.

Judge Thomas Tompsett heard the case in Baltimore County Circuit Court and handed down the verdict Friday after a five-day trial.

Russell, 44, was charged with first-degree murder but Tompsett found him guilty on the lesser murder charge. Tompsett also found Russell guilty of first-degree assault.

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,” adding, “Nuggets on your motherf___ing head.”

In the video, Eaton is seen lying on the hotel room floor, his face bloodied and a knot visible on his forehead, making snoring sounds. At one point, Russell tells Eaton, “Turn on your side so you can breathe, dummy. You’re coughing up blood.”

Russell testified that he recorded the injured Eaton to humiliate him and portray himself as tougher than he was.

“I decided to give him a verbal lashing and record. My intention was to be an asshole, and embarrass him,” Russell testified. “I'm not going to hit somebody who's down on the ground…the best thing I could do is record it.”
The video shows a semi-conscious Eaton suffering gruesome facial injuries. Russell stands over Eaton and berates him as he lies facedown in pool of his own blood.

“This man was beaten to the point of almost instant deformity,” Assistant State’s Attorney Matthew Darnbrough said, arguing Eaton’s injuries were too severe to have resulted from only two punches.

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

Russell testified Thursday that he punched Eaton only after Eaton “popped” him in the mouth and then struck him several times.

Eaton was irritated, he said, because Russell had not left the hotel room.

Russell said he, Eaton, and a woman they had both previously been romantically involved with had been living in hotels and using drugs together for about a month. He testified the woman supported their drug use through sex work and had left the room that night.

Eaton was planning to return to Ocean City the following day and wanted to spend time alone with the woman, according to testimony.

The group had been moved from a double room to a single-bed room at the Red Roof Inn. Russell said Eaton anxious and “pushy,” wanting Russell to leave and the woman to return.

Russell testified that he had not refused to leave but was having trouble arranging a ride.

Russell’s defense team argued he did not intend to kill Eaton and that Eaton’s fatal head injury may have been caused by his falls on the concrete walkway.

“In between the assault and the fall, he recovered, he used drugs, and then he fell,” defense attorney Rukaayat Balogun said.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner initially ruled Eaton’s manner of death “undetermined,” but a pathologist later changed the ruling to “homicide” after reviewing Russell’s cellphone videos.

Two experts testifying for the defense said they could not determine definitively if Eaton died from injuries sustained in the assault or from hitting his head outside the room.

Russell never sought help for Eaton after the assault, even when it was clear Eaton was seriously injured, Darnbrough said.

The case was tried as a bench trial, meaning Judge Tompsett — not a jury — weighed the evidence and determined Russell’s guilt.

Russell faces up to 40 years in prison for the second-degree murder charge and 25 years for first-degree assault.
Sentencing will be next year.