California prosecutors in Los Angeles County said two inmates could face the death penalty for torturing a fellow inmate for up to half an hour, then killing him while they were locked together in an unsupervised room at the Men's Central Jail — all over what authorities now believe was a misunderstanding.

Prosecutors believe that gang members targeted Chadwick Shane Cochran, a 35-year-old with mental problems who was placed in jail for a nonviolent offense, because they saw him being escorted by deputies and wrongly concluded that he was a jailhouse informant.

Christian Perez, 18, and Heriberto Eddie Rodriguez, 24, were charged with Cochran's torture and murder Wednesday. The gang members, along with Cochran and 27 other inmates, were placed by deputies in a room at the Men's Central Jail on the evening of Nov. 16. Deputies could not see into the room because the windows were covered with metal sheeting. A spokeswoman from Los Angeles County described the murder as “very brutal”.