Naked inmate ‘left to die alone’ in pool of blood, Nevada suit says. Mom wants answers
After Christian Walker was transferred to a different Nevada prison, he died within two days, according to a lawsuit filed over his death.
His mother reportedly learned corrections officers brutally beat him, twice, before he was “left to die alone in a cell,” the lawsuit says.
The day after Walker’s arrival at High State Prison in Clark County, he was admitted to a Las Vegas trauma center with severe injuries and needed 17 stitches, mostly on his head, in April 2023, a complaint states.
UMC Trauma Center’s intake records say the 44-year-old inmate was hit in the head, possibly with a baton, and that he didn’t “remember what happened,” according to a complaint filed April 11.
Walker returned to prison hours later after he was treated and discharged, according to the complaint.
The next evening, a porter brought Walker a dinner tray and found him naked in his cell, underneath his metal bed frame “in a fetal position, with blood and bruises all down his back and legs” and “lying in a pool of blood, moaning,” the complaint says.
According to the complaint, the porter called two officers over to Walker’s cell, but no member of the jail staff, including medical personnel, checked on him the entire night of April 14, 2023.
Corrections officers are accused of beating Walker with batons before and after his stay at the trauma center, according to the complaint, which says they also punched, kicked and pepper sprayed him.
The morning of April 15, 2023, a first responder responded to Walker’s cell after a report of a cardiac arrest, and he was pronounced dead, the complaint says.
However, it’s believed Walker died the night before, as suggested by the discoloration of Walker’s skin noticed by the first responder on his “badly beaten body,” according to the complaint.
Prison officials and the Clark County Office Of The Coroner/Medical Examiner are accused of working together to cover up how he died. A copy of the coroner’s autopsy report provided to McClatchy News lists his manner of death as “natural.”
Annette Walker, his mother, said at an April 12 news conference that her son “was beaten to death.”
She is suing the Nevada Department of Corrections, its director James Dzurenda and several prison officials, correctional officers and other prison staff members. The county coroner is also listed as a defendant.
In an emailed statement, William C. Quenga, the department’s public information officer, told McClatchy News that “we are aware of the lawsuit and cannot comment on active case.”
The county declined a request for comment, as county officials cannot comment on pending litigation, public information officer Stephanie Wheatley told McClatchy News via email.
The complaint says “This lawsuit stands for something much larger than Christian….It stands as a loud, strong signal to NDOC officials that their careless attitude towards cruelty will no longer be tolerated.”
Christian’s final days
Walker had been incarcerated for more than two decades before he died, and was convicted of second-degree murder in connection with killing his girlfriend in 1997, the Las Vegas Sun reported in 2001, when his appeal to reduce his conviction to manslaughter was denied.
Annette Walker said her son “was not perfect,” and described him as “the greatest gift in my life.”
While serving his sentence at Southern Desert Correctional Center until his transfer to High Desert State Prison “due to a medical episode,” Annette Walker said her son became a minister, earned his master’s degree and “wanted to use his story to help others avoid the mistakes he made.”
Annette Walker had Dr. Lary Simms, who previously worked as the county’s medical examiner, review the county’s autopsy report on her son’s death, according to the complaint.
The coroner’s autopsy report says Walker’s cause of death was “hypertensive cardiovascular disease,” which contributed to his “natural” death.
Simms disagreed with the findings, and suggested “blunt head trauma” caused Walker’s death instead and that he died of brain swelling, the complaint says.
An anonymous letter dated June 2023 was sent to a nonprofit organization to “expose” what really happened to Walker and how there’s been many “unusual” prison deaths, according to the lawsuit. The name of the nonprofit was not specified in the lawsuit.
The letter says it was written by employees of the Nevada Department of Corrections.
Photos of Walker included in the complaint show him after he died. The images are graphic, showing his swollen, bloody and bruised face.
A hope for ‘meaningful changes’
At the news conference, Annette Walker said her lawsuit isn’t about “vengeance.”
“I am seeking answers. Answers to why my son was murdered, why the system that was supposed to help him, and others, rehabilitate, ended up being where his life was taken,” she said.
“Christian’s death raises serious questions about the treatment of inmates, about the conditions within our prisons, and about the very nature of our justice system,” Annette Walker also said.
“I miss my son very much every day…Christian Walker’s life mattered, and it is up to us to ensure that his story is heard and that meaningful changes follow,” she added.
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