Mother of Nevada prisoner claims in lawsuit that prison staff covered up her son’s fatal beating
LAS VEGAS– The mother of a Nevada inmate who died days after being beaten by corrections staff is suing prison officials and the Las Vegas coroner’s office, accusing them of covering up her son’s death.
Annette Walker alleges in a lawsuit filed late Thursday in Clark County District Court that her son, Christian, was brutally beaten by guards and left to die at High Desert State Prison near Las Vegas last April, and that there is a larger pattern of excessive violence within the prison. the state’s prison system.
“This lawsuit represents something much, much bigger than just Christian,” the lawsuit says. “It stands for all those who came and will come before Christian Walker.”
Walker’s face was swollen and smeared with blood when he died in custody. He also suffered head trauma and other injuries to his torso and extremities that required stitches, according to the lawsuit.
The medical examiner concluded that the injuries did not cause or contribute to his death.
Lary Simms, a forensic pathology expert who worked as a medical examiner in Las Vegas and Chicago for 25 years, reviewed Walker’s autopsy and medical records for the plaintiffs. He recommended a “complete reevaluation” of Walker’s death.
Simms wrote in an affidavit filed with the lawsuit that the medical examiner’s “microscopic description” of Walker’s apparent heart problems in the autopsy report is inconsistent with the final ruling that it was a natural death caused by heart problems.
The state Department of Corrections and its director, James Dzuurda, several prison administrators, medical staff and unnamed guards, along with the Clark County coroner’s office, are listed as suspects. Both the corrections department and the county declined to comment Friday.
Walker was 44 when he died on April 15, 2023. He had spent more than 20 years behind bars after being convicted of manslaughter in the 1997 death of his then-girlfriend. He tried unsuccessfully to have the charge reduced to manslaughter in 2001.
His family described him in the lawsuit as a religious man who avoided trouble in prison. He worked as a car mechanic and hairdresser. He earned certificates in Christian studies and computer programming while housed at the Southern Desert Correctional Center, a predominantly medium-security prison in Las Vegas, since 1999, the lawsuit said.
According to the lawsuit and an unredacted copy of his autopsy obtained by The Associated Press, Walker experienced extreme paranoia and struggled with losing his train of thought when he was transferred to nearby High Desert State Prison, a mixed-security prison.
It wasn’t long before Walker was “brutally attacked with batons and sprayed with pepper spray,” causing him to lose consciousness, the lawsuit said.
Jail staff said Walker had repeatedly ignored commands and shown aggression toward officers, causing them to restrain him with batons and their hands, according to the autopsy.
Walker was taken to a hospital in Las Vegas and had difficulty speaking. First responders described an array of injuries in their medical report, including “raccoon eyes” and “uncontrolled bleeding” on his scalp, face and lips, the lawsuit said.
He was released from the hospital four hours later and taken back to jail, where guards beat Walker with batons a second time the next day, the lawsuit alleges.
According to the lawsuit, Walker was placed alone in a cell in the jail’s infirmary, a unit where medical staff could monitor him. Yet the lawsuit alleges that officers and medical staff at the jail did not check on Walker that night, even though he lay “in a pool of blood, groaning” under a metal frame bed.
He was found dead in the morning, naked, bloodied and unconscious on the floor.
In addition to wrongful death, the lawsuit accuses the corrections department of cruel and unusual punishment against Walker, as well as negligence by the prison’s guards and medical staff. It also accuses the coroner’s office of deliberate indifference.
The dates of the assault detailed in the lawsuit differ slightly from the dates listed in Walker’s autopsy.
James Urrutia, the attorney for Walker’s family, told The Associated Press that the timeline laid out in the lawsuit is based largely on Walker’s medical records and statements from witnesses, including first responders. But he said the full picture of how Walker died is incomplete because the corrections department has denied the law firm’s repeated requests for security footage and other documents.
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Associated Press writer Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada, contributed to this report. ___
Stern reported from Reno. He is a member of the staff for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a service program that places journalists in local newsrooms. Follow Stern on X: @gabestern326.