The State of Nevada will pay $4.6 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the estate of Christian Walker, who died in 2023 while in prison after what a lawsuit claimed were brutal assaults by state correctional officers that included “the use of a baton, repeated punching, kicking, and pepper spraying.”

The settlement was approved without comment at Tuesday's Board of Examiners meeting by the board’s members — the governor, attorney general and secretary of state. According to a copy of the settlement agreement, $2.7 million will go to Walker’s estate, which is managed by his mother, Annette Walker, and $1.8 million will go to their legal counsel.

The Nevada Department of Corrections (NDOC) will pay $500 while the rest of the settlement will come from the state’s Statutory Contingency Fund. Neither NDOC, nor an attorney representing the Walker family, responded to requests for comment from The Indy.

According to the lawsuit filed by Annette Walker, Christian Walker was incarcerated in 1997 on charges of second-degree murder and spent many years at Southern Desert Correctional Center before being transferred to High Desert State Prison north of Las Vegas, where he was held for only three days before his death. He was 44 years old.

The first assault allegedly occurred on April 13, 2023, and Walker ultimately received 17 stitches. The lawsuit alleged that the defendants, most of whom are correctional officers, “participated in and/or witnessed and/or allowed Christian to be brutally assaulted with batons and sprayed with pepper spray, causing Christian to lose consciousness.”

The state’s motion said that the assault was because Walker refused to follow orders from multiple officers, which required a “spontaneous forceful intervention.”

Walker was taken to University Medical Center, where the lawsuit stated he did “not remember what happened.”

After being discharged and returned to the correctional facility, the lawsuit claimed there was a second beating by correctional officers, and Walker was naked during the assault and was later found under the bed frame in a fetal position, nude, lying in a pool of blood and moaning. 

Despite his state, the lawsuit alleges he was not given medical treatment until 6:30 a.m., about 12 hours later, when a first responder received a call of a cardiac arrest.

An hour after the first responder arrived at the prison, Walker was declared dead.

A defendant in the suit, Medical Examiner Stephanie Yagi, ruled Walker’s death to be from hypertensive cardiovascular disease and the manner of death as natural. The lawsuit alleged that NDOC covered up medical records to make Walker’s death appear to be from natural causes.

Walker’s mother retained Lary Simms, a former medical examiner for Clark County, and he testified against Yagi’s findings, saying, “The circumstances of death coupled with the findings described in the autopsy do not support Hypertensive Cardiovascular Disease as the cause of death. Rather, the circumstances of death coupled with the findings described in the autopsy report support blunt head trauma as the cause of death.”

The state’s motion to dismiss challenged the claim, saying, “An internal investigation found that the use of force used by all correctional officers was appropriate, and the medical examiner concluded that Walker died of natural causes.”

The Walker family’s suit argues it was part of an ongoing coverup by NDOC to sweep inmate deaths under the rug. 

“NDOC leadership has for many years conspired with Clark County Coroners to ensure the true cause of inmates deaths are hidden from the public. Over the decades, many unusual inmate deaths have occurred with a similar coroner report finding of death by ‘natural causes,’” the lawsuit reads.

The lawsuit also claimed that at the time of filing on April 11, 2024, NDOC failed to fulfill a state requirement that it report any use of force, which the lawsuit said allowed Walker’s death to go unreported.

SB212 was passed by state lawmakers in 2021 and requires law enforcement entities to submit monthly use-of-force data to the records bureau of the Department of Public Safety and the FBI. The reports are meant to include any complaints against law enforcement officers regarding use of force. The bill also defined NDOC as a mandated reporting agency.

Additionally, it said NDOC leaders’ efforts to conceal the cause of inmate deaths ultimately results in the retention of “aggressive, untrained, and poor” correctional officers and it also “creates an environment in Nevada prisons that encourages correctional officers to violently beat inmates.”

The motion filed by the state seeking to dismiss the case said, “While Defendants understand and sympathize with Ms. Walker, who is understandably grieving the loss of her son ... those allegations not only impugn the credibility and ethics of multiple professionals who take pride in their work, but also seek to call into question the public’s trust in NDOC as an institution.”

According to a legal memo included in Board of Examiners meeting documents, the settlement was reached to avoid the costs of continued discovery and a possible adverse outcome if the trial went to jury.