An attorney for the man charged with a gruesome 1999 murder at the federal prison in Florence lashed out at the Bureau of Prisons on Monday, saying its "dereliction of duty" - from allowing inmates to drink alcohol to ignoring a duress alarm - led to the death of inmate Joey Estrella.

"Make no mistake," attorney Nathan Chambers said during closing arguments in the trial of William Sablan. "What happened on Oct. 10, 1999, was allowed to happen."

Walking five strides across the courtroom floor, his arms out at his side, Chambers told the jury that was the approximate size of the roughly 7-by-11-foot cell William Sablan shared with his cousin, Rudy Sablan, and Estrella.

Then he asked jurors to imagine themselves in Sablan's place the night of the killing - in the small cell with Estrella drunk and picking a fight, and guards doing nothing to stop it.

"There's no escape," Chambers said. "There's nowhere to run."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brenda Taylor, however, called Chambers' arguments "a distraction," telling jurors that Estrella was unconscious when Sablan cut his throat.

"He was not fighting back," she said.

Sablan, 42, and his cousin, who will be tried later, killed Estrella to send a message throughout the prison that they were "someone to be reckoned with," Taylor said.

Prosecutors have contended throughout the four-week trial that after Rudy Sablan choked Estrella with a headphone cord, rendering him unconscious, William Sablan used a prison-issued razor to cut Estrella's neck at least 60 times, causing him to bleed to death.

The Sablans then cut open Estrella's torso and removed his organs.

When guards discovered what had happened, they called for backup, then began videotaping through a window in the cell door. On the tape, which was shown to the jury last month, William Sablan admits several times that he killed Estrella, then gutted him "like a pig."

If convicted of first-degree murder, William Sablan could be sentenced to death. The jury, which began deliberating late Monday afternoon, also could opt for lesser charges of second-degree murder or voluntary or involuntary manslaughter.

Admitting that what Sablan did was "outrageous" and "horrible," Chambers told the jury it wasn't first-degree murder.

Sablan is "borderline retarded" and couldn't have planned the killing, Chambers said.

He also said prosecutors didn't prove that it was William Sablan, and not Rudy Sablan, who delivered the fatal cuts to the neck.

But Taylor and Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip Brimmer noted that William Sablan appeared to be in total control as the videotape rolled.

"William Sablan committed a horrible, brutal murder, not because he couldn't control himself, but because he wanted to prove that he was in control," Brimmer said.

The jury will continue deliberating today.