Toombs County Murderer Found Dead in Prison

A man serving a life sentence for the 2015 murder of Vidalia resident Marie Warnock was found dead in his jail cell at Dooly State Prison in Unadilla on Saturday, June 22.

Carlito Soldiew-Acosta, 39, was found dead in his isolation cell, which he shared with a single cellmate. According to Dooly County Coroner James Hudson, the inmate is believed to have been dead for over 24 hours prior to his discovery. Hudson shared he suspects this death is likely the result of foul play.

Soldiew-Acosta’s body has been sent to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab for further investigation regarding the cause of death. The convicted murderer had been incarcerated since March 21, 2019, when Toombs County Superior Court Judge Kathy Palmer sentenced him to life in prison with the possibility of parole for the continued from page

December 1, 2015, murder of Warnock.

Warnock was a former secretary of the Vidalia First Baptist Church and was attending a Sunday School party with her fellow church members at Chatters Restaurant in Lyons when she was brutally attacked while getting into her car. Her body was found hours later as it lay beside the open door of her vehicle in the restaurant’s parking lot.

Soldiew-Acosta was arrested on the day of the murder as a person of interest in the case, as he fit the description which witnesses provided to law enforcement.

He was held in jail without bond for three years and three months until entering a guilty plea in the case. Soldiew-Acosta’s public defender argued that his client had been determined to be incompetent to stand trial. After further evaluation by Atlanta psychiatrist Matthew Norman, the defendant was declared competent upon the date of trial, as he had been diagnosed with psychosis and was under active treatment through a daily medication.

The inmate’s death will now be jointly investigated by the Georgia Department of Corrections and Bureau of Investigation to determine the manner of death.