Prosecutors: Fight over remote control spawns fatal prison stomping

COLORADO SPRINGS – Prosecutors say a feud over a TV remote control led to a “fatal stomp-down” that killed a 64-year-old inmate at a Colorado Springs prison.

The Gazette reports Danny Lee Gonzalez is charged with second-degree murder in a Nov. 19, 2017, attack on Daniel Pena. Both men were awaiting parole at the Cheyenne Mountain Re-entry Center.

Prosecutor Grant Libby, during opening statements Wednesday, said Gonzalez knocked down Pena and repeatedly stomped on his head as five of Gonzalez’s friends stood guard.

Gonzalez’s attorneys say he’s being blamed for defending himself after Pena took a swing at him. Public defender Kim Chalmers says Gonzalez didn’t stomp on Pena, attributing the claim to inmates exaggerating.

Pena lost consciousness less than a half-hour later and was found slumped over in a bathroom. He was pronounced dead a week later at a hospital.