Pete Van Winkle Murdering Inmate Robert Cotton – CCTV Video
October 17th, 2008Video above contains CCTV recording of a murder of inmate Robert Cotton by another inmate, Pete Van Winkle – a member of Aryan Brotherhood. Quite an entertainment for Friday night.
Sheriff’s Office of the Maricopa County, Phoenix, Arizona issued a statement following the murder of Robert Cotton that entirely contradicts the CCTV video. The press release states that nothing out of the ordinary happened in the cell on May 1, 2008 (the day of murder) and that the detention officers rushed to the murder scene after Robert Cotton’s dead body was dragged out of the cell and dropped on the floor one level below.
CCTV video however shows that the attack lasted for 15 minutes, during which Robert Cotton was strangled, punched and head stomped by Pete Van Winkle even after his body was bloodied and motionless for minutes. Detention officers got on the murder scene 5 minutes after Robert Cotton’s dead body was dragged out of the cell.
Investigation into the case suggests that Robert Cotton may have been murdered because he wouldn’t beat up another inmate after asked to do it by the Aryan Brotherhood.
Jess Torres, former police officer and security consultant interviewed in the video says that a security guard who was supposed to be monitoring the camera obviously wasn’t doing his/her job. According to Jess Torres; “They’re trained to notice and they’re paid to notice”.
Robert Cotton was serving time for car theft. Pete Van Winkle is now charged with first degree murder, reporters from the video say. The family of Robert Cotton filed a $2 Million claim against the sheriff’s office.
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I wish I had found this blog sooner.
I know no one really cares about an inmate beating another inmate to death but I want to tell you about this inmate.
Robby was a very close friend of mine. I have known him since he was 3 years old and I was 5 years old. Robby was not violent In fact as more information is coming out it is beginning to look like he was killed as punishment for not harming another inmate as he was instructed to by other inmates. Robby did not have any tatoos or any other markings of a prison regular. What he did have was 2 children 1 with down’s syndrom that miss him. He also has a mother and brother and sister that love and miss him and have to live with the fact that they turned him in when they saw he was stealing to support a drug habit and becoming a danger to himself. Even though it seemed the best way to get him back in line. Robby was a very loyal friend and he didn’t deserve to go out like that.
I personally put no stock in religion, but Robby believe it or not had just “found Jesus” and had been making calls to everyone he loved to tell them how sorry he was for causing so much trouble and, that he was turning his life over to god.
My oldest memories of Robby include a time when his mother and my mother decided to drive us to Disneyland in an old blue Impala. He was afraid to go on any ride that went into a dark tunnel. We spent the whole ride home staring out the back window and when ever cars came up behind us we would yell “car” and duck out of sight. I don’t think the car even had back seatbelts.
I spent about every day of my elementary school life with him. When I was 9 and he was 7 we went to Lindbergh Elementary they had a carnival and at that carnival they had a cake-walk 1 ticket only and tikets were 25 cents. We got Robby’s older brother Scott and a 2 of his friends and did the cake-walk untill we had all the cakes, and don’t think we didn’t eat them all that night.
I can’t eat a Big Mac without thinking about the time when they had that Mac Tonite campaign and when ever you made a purchase they gave you a scratch-off ticket and about 80% of them were free Big Mac certificates so Robby and I bought 1 soda and the guy gave us 2 scratch-offs and they were for free Big Macs the guy gave us 2 more scratch-offs with the Big Macs, and they also were for free Big Macs, it kept happening we finnally had a table covered in wrappers and we didn’t want any more. One of our friends wandered in and thought we were scamming them and was nervous… He ate 1.
I love and miss my friend. He was the closest person to a little brother that I’ve ever known… It hurts and will forever.
Thanks for reading this.