LOVE DURING LOCKUP Dustin found guilty of battery on another inmate earlier this year

Love During Lockup Season 2 felon Dustin Phillips is currently behind bars in Florida. As revealed in our Season 2 inmate chart post, Dustin’s current release date is listed as December 14, 2022 on the Florida Department of Corrections website. Not helping Dustin get out any sooner is the fact that he committed a felony late last year… while incarcerated!

According to court documents exclusively obtained by Starcasm, Dustin was in custody of the Nassau County Detention Center in November of last year when the incident went down. Video surveillance footage recorded inside the facility showed Dustin approach another inmate from behind.

An officer who watched the video says Dustin “can be seen planting his left foot, clenching his fist, and punching the victim in the face. This is done without any known provocation, and the victim did not see it coming.”

So what motivated Dustin to punch another unsuspecting inmate in the face? Below is the set up from the police report. I use only Dustin’s first name and redact the other inmate names except for the first letters.

On November 18, 2021 during information pass-down from Alpha Shift, they advised that Inmate Dustin was moved from A300 to D200 due to him continually talking to females across the hallway.

During my headcount of D200 at 1750 Hours, Inmate Dustin did not mention anything regarding movement or his mental status in D200. At approximately 1840 hours, Inmate Dustin was banging on the pod door in an attempt to get a deputy’s attention. Inmate Dustin made contact with the C/D Tower, via D200 Emergency Speaker Box requesting a deputy. CRO Marshall notified via the housing office phone that an inmate was requesting an officer in D200. Lt. McCracken, Sgt. Higginbotham, Deputies Blount, Snead and I responded to D200 to find Inmate Dustin at the door. Once the door was opened, Lt. McCracken began to speak with Inmate Dustin, who refused to allow Lt. McCracken to speak. Inmate Dustin was in an agitated state. He spoke in a raised voice with his arms lifted, clenching his fists and stated, “I have to get out of here. My anxiety and sh*t is going crazy, man!” Due to no plausible reason for Inmate Dustin to be moved, accompanied with the reasonable suspicion that inmate Dustin was attempting to manipulate staff in order to be moved to his original housing location, Inmate Dustin remained in D200.

CRO Marshall, who is operating the C/D Tower, called again at approximately 1900 advising that other inmates were requesting to speak with a deputy. Sgt. Higginbotham, Deputy Snead and I responded to D200 and met Inmates, C******, K***** and Dustin at the door. Inmate C****** requested that we remove Inmate Dustin before any further altercations occurred. I removed Inmate Dustin into the hallway for further questioning. Inmate Dustin began expressing his concern for his mental health and requested to be moved back to a two person lockdown cell due to his anxiety in more open populations. Inmate Dustin continued to state, “What I gotta do to get moved out of here, get into a fight right in front of y’all?” Inmate Dustin was advised that this would not result in his movement and that negative consequences would follow. Inmate Dustin continued, “I just punched a dude in the face already, look at my hands.” Inmate Dustin showed his right hand, and it could be seen that his knuckles were visibly red and there was a slight swelling of his wrist. Sgt. Higginbotham and I escorted Inmate Dustin to booking for medical assessment and Deputy Snead attempted to locate the inmate who was potentially battered.

I reviewed the video surveillance of D200 and it can be seen at 1900 hours on the camera system in the booking area, that Inmate Dustin approaches an inmate, unidentifiable by camera, and plants his left foot, clenches his fist, and delivers a closed fist strike to the facial region of the inmate, causing the inmate to lose balance and fall to the floor. Inmate Dustin then leaves the area and retrieves his personal belongings and places himself at the door. Deputy Snead then spoke with the other inmate involved in the altercation, identified as Inmate B*****. Inmate B***** appeared to be okay and Deputy Snead escorted him to medical for further evaluation. Nurse Reagan assessed Inmate B***** and cleared him to return to housing. Due to the location where the strike landed, no visible bruising or lacerations were present for evidence.

The police officer who arrived on the scene was in the booking area awaiting the completed report from the corrections officer when Dustin “admitted several times to striking the victim ‘because of his charges’ and so that he could be moved out of the pod.”

Dustin was charged with a felony count of battery of a detained person (battery in a detention facility). Dustin pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to 12 months in jail in April of this year. He was credited for 160 days time served.

It’s not too difficult to do the math and realize that Dustin should have a release date slightly sooner than December 14. As it turns out, Dustin’s felony conviction while incarcerated didn’t add any additional time to his sentence!

Dustin was found guilty of a probation violation in September of last year stemming from a prior conviction for burglary and grand theft. He was sentenced to 40 months in prison with 768 days credit for time served. I believe that is what determined Dustin’s December release date.

Dustin’s bae Jessica tells her daughter on the show that once Dustin is out, his is clear — no parole or halfway house. That would make since given that he is serving the full term of his sentence after a prior probation violation.

To find out if Jessica made a wise decision by getting a HUGE tattoo of Dustin’s last name on her abdomen and moving to Tennessee to be near his family after his release, be sure to tune in to new episodes of Love During Lockup airing Friday nights at 9/8c on WE tv!

Asa Hawks is a writer and editor for Starcasm. You can contact Asa via Twitter, Facebook, or email at starcasmtips(at)yahoo.com