PHOENIX -- A prisoner at the Maricopa County Jail is accused of beating to death a 28-year-old Valley inmate awaiting trial on drug charges.

The victim is identified as Robert Leroy Cotton. The accused killer is Pete Van Winkle, 26.

Van Winkle followed Cotton into his cell around 8 p.m. Thursday after officers performed their security walk, said Jerry Sheridan, chief of the Custody Bureau.

Deputies said their investigation shows that a video camera caught portions of the assault.

The cell view was not on any of the six monitors inside the tower at the time of assault because nothing out of the ordinary appeared to be happening in or around that cell, according to sheriff's investigators.

Also no other inmates, even an inmate who walked by the assault three different times, made an attempt to contact detention officers, MCSO said. The beating, which lasted 15 minutes, was out of sight and sound of the security tower, deputies said.

Van Winkle then dragged Cotton out of the cell and attempted to throw him over the second floor railing when detention officers rushed to the scene, investigators said.

The victim appeared lifeless and officers immediately performed CPR, deputies said.

Van Winkle surrendered peacefully. He was rebooked on first-degree murder charges.

Cotton, a day labor carpenter, has a lengthy criminal record and was booked into jail by Mesa police over one year ago, according to deputies. He served time in the state prison in 2002 and 2004.

Van Winkle was just out of prison when he was arrested by Phoenix police officers on Feb. 29 and booked on an attempted second-degree murder charge and misconduct involving weapons.

According to his booking information, Van Winkle has ties to the Aryan Brotherhood and had a number of assaults on staff and inmates while incarcerated with the Department of Corrections.