DENVER, March 29 (UPI) -- The U.S. attorney's office in Denver is seeking the death penalty for two inmates accused of killing prisoners at the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colo.
The cases represent the first murder charges at the Supermax prison and the first time in a decade the U.S. attorney in Denver has sought the death penalty, The Denver Post reported Tuesday.
Richard Santiago, 51, is charged with beating inmate Manuel Torrez to death in the Supermax yard in 2005. Notices filed in U.S. District Court also accuse inmate Silvestre Mayorqui Rivera of kicking, punching and stomping Torrez until he became unresponsive.
Cameras caught the attack on video, the newspaper said. Santiago and Rivera can be seen attacking Torrez for several minutes. The video shows them walking away from Torrez once he appears unconscious, but Santiago returned later to deliver more kicks to the head and torso of Torrez, an FBI affidavit indicates. Prison guards first arrived on the scene several minutes later.
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Both suspects were charged with murder in 2010, but prosecutors are only seeking the death penalty for Santiago.
Santiago previously was convicted of murder and assault while in custody in Fresno, Calif., and he has claimed to be a member of the Mexican Mafia gang, court documents indicate.
In a separate incident in 2008, Gary Douglas Watland, 48, who was serving a life sentence for murder, is charged with stabbing inmate Mark James Baker in the head and neck with a makeshift metal shank. Watland told investigators Baker had disrespected him and he was happy he was dead, court documents say.
