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The Las Vegas, New Mexico, police detective was familiar with Eric Vigil from prior run-ins.

But when the detective was called to investigate Vigil’s homicide at the San Miguel County jail, he said the 40-year-old was unrecognizable, according to court records.

The detective said Vigil’s lips were sunken in from having no teeth left, his face was purple and his nose “almost completely flat.” The blood was spattered around the cell “with so much energy” that pieces of flesh stuck to the walls.

Seven fellow inmates were charged Monday in a two-minute beating that left Vigil dead on Nov. 1 at the San Miguel County Detention Center.

Conrad Atencio, 25, Dathian Lucero, 24, Daniel Magallanes, 22, Nathan Pacheco, 25, Devin Morales, 21, Pierre Lovato, 44, and Joaquin Richardson, 19, are each charged with an open count of murder and tampering with evidence.

Some of the inmates told authorities Vigil – feared for his reputation as a cage fighter – was a bully who would always start fights in the jail. One inmate said they jumped Vigil, killing him, after he challenged them to a fight.

The warden of the jail did not respond to questions from the Journal.

Vigil had been held at the jail since June 7 and was awaiting trial on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was accused of having a pistol and a sawn-off shotgun.

In 2013, Vigil was acquitted in the 2007 fatal shooting of two New Mexico Highlands University students, while his older brother was sentenced to 30 years in the case.

According to a criminal complaint filed in Magistrate Court:

Jail officials were alerted around 5:30 p.m. by an inmate in the Echo pod who said another inmate had slipped and fallen. They found Vigil on the floor in a large cell on the top floor. He was pronounced dead at Alta Vista Regional Hospital in Las Vegas.

Surveillance video showed that the inmates surrounded Vigil and followed him to the cell after the staff left the pod. Vigil tried to close the cell door behind him, but Lovato caught the door and the men got inside.

The video showed Magallanes hit Vigil and the other inmates drag him to the middle of the cell, and attack him as other inmates watched from the doorway. The inmates leave the cell, and “shake hands and hug each other in a celebratory fashion” before going to the showers. Ten minutes later, guards were made aware and locked down the pod.

By the time a Las Vegas police detective arrived, the men had washed up and changed clothes, but many of them had swollen knuckles and no defensive injuries. Atencio, Magallanes, Morales and Lucero all refused to speak with police, and began crying when told Vigil had died.

Pacheco told police Vigil was a bully who was feared in the pod and everyone was getting tired of him. He said the only way for any of the inmates to “come out alive” was to attack Vigil at once – comparing the incident to the biblical story of David and Goliath.

Another inmate, who watched the beating, told police Vigil challenged everyone to a fight before going into the cell. He said that, after Vigil fell down, everyone attacked him. The inmate told police he was “grossed out” and there were teeth everywhere.

An autopsy found Vigil had no defensive wounds – indicating he never fought back – and his skull was filled with blood. He had multiple facial fractures and, due to the blood spatter, the pathologist found Vigil was “jumped on, and stomped on, and beaten.”

“Through my past experiences and encounters – I could no longer recognize (Vigil),” the detective wrote in the complaint.