
FLORENCE, AZ - A Mexican citizen illegally in the United States killed a prison cellmate in order to remain in custody, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday.
The Sheriff's Office said it is recommending that prosecutors charge 43-year-old Roberto Venegas-Fernandez with first-degree murder in the Nov. 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.
The killing occurred during what was initially reported as a fight between the two men.