A federal grand jury in Orlando, Florida indicted Monday a prison guard for arranging to move a detainee to a cell where he was killed by another prisoner.

According to a copy of the indictment obtained by AFP, prison guard Michael Kennedy "while acting under the color of law, did willfully combine, conspire, confederate and agree" with another prison guard in March 2005 to move Richard Delano into a cell occupied by prisoner John McCullah.

The second guard, Erin Sharma, had been involved in an altercation with Delano days earlier, and was sentenced in July 2009 to life in prison for seeking to "encourage McCullah to assault Delano," the indictment said.

Kennedy's role, according to the document, was to "arrange for the move of Richard Delano into the cell of John McCullah, aware that McCullah would assault and physically harm Delano."

Delano was almost immediately attacked by his new cellmate and fell into a coma just three days after being transferred. He died of his injuries two weeks later.

Kennedy faces life in prison if convicted.