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Murder Charges Dropped In Prison Death

The state has dropped its murder charge against Waldemar Rivera, accused of delivering a fatal punch in prison to the man convicted of killing Rivera's cousin. Rivera, 29, instead will be charged with manslaughter in the June death of Kevin Cales, prosecutor Herbert Carlson said in Superior Court in Hartford today.

"We feel we could not prove intent to cause death so we could not proceed with murder," Carlson told Judge David Gold.

Cales had been serving time for his role in the death of Maryneliz Jimenez and four others. Cales chased down Jimenez, his ex-girlfriend, in his car at speeds of up to 120 mph two years ago. Jimenez lost control of her car during the chase.

Court records show that Rivera, serving time for robbery at McDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield, was watching television news with fellow prison inmates earlier this year when he learned that his cousin had died in a car crash nearly two years earlier.

Convicted of manslaughter in the case, Cales in April was sent to McDougall-Walker and put in the same 114-man cell block as Rivera. There, Rivera threatened Cales and warned him to seek transfer to another block, court records say.

In June, Rivera stomped Cales' head while the two were in the lunchroom, according to accounts by prison staff in an arrest-warrant affidavit. Cales died hours later at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford.

Rivera was originally charged with murder and first-degree assault.

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