Arizona authorities say a prison inmate who was in the U.S. illegally killed his cellmate because he wanted to remain behind bars.
The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office has recommended that prosecutors charge 43-year-old Roberto Venegas-Fernandez with first-degree murder in the November 16 killing of 55-year-old Michael Patrick McNaughton
Both men were prisoners of the U.S. Marshals Service, which has said they were from the San Diego area and housed at a Corrections Corp. of America prison in Florence pending their transfer to the Bureau of Prisons.
Sheriff Paul Babeu said Venegas-Fernandez told investigators that he choked and stomped McNaughton because he likes it in prison and was afraid of being released since he has nowhere to go.
McNaughton’s death was initially believed to have resulted from a jailhouse fight, but Fernandez later told investigators that he choked his cellmate while he was sitting on his bunk.
The 43-year-old Mexican national, who is an undocumented immigrant, then stomped on McNaughton’s head and bit him in the groin, telling officials he did all that so he could remain in prison, CBS5AZ.com reported.
