‘This should’ve never happened’: Inmate stabbed to death at Nevada prison

An inmate was stabbed to death last Thursday at High Desert State Prison, according to the Nevada Department of Corrections and the man’s mother.

Hawk Urban, 27, who had been imprisoned on multiple battery charges, and his cellmate had an altercation, according to department spokesperson Teri Vance.

Urban’s mother, Selma Belle, said her son was incarcerated at Ely State Prison, then moved to High Desert sometime around October. The Department of Corrections recently swapped almost 2,000 inmates between the two institutions in the wake of an increase in gang activity and violence.

Belle heard that Urban and his cellmate got into a fight.

“Knives were brought out,” she said, adding, “I don’t know who stabbed who first.”

‘Slipped through the cracks’

As of Wednesday, nearly a week after her son’s death, Belle said the department hadn’t been in touch with her. She’s angry about what happened and angry that she wasn’t immediately notified, she said.

“I was never called,” she said. “Nobody called me. I found out on my own.”

She said she heard about the incident from a niece whose ex was in prison and confirmed the death on the prison website, which lists Urban as “INACTIVE-DEATH.”

Vance said a chaplain called Urban’s mother, but did not reach her.

Vance called the lack of contact with Belle “a gross oversight,” but said an associate warden was able to reach her after the Las Vegas Review-Journal contacted the department.

“It just sort of slipped through the cracks,” she said.

Mother: Cellmates were relatives

Belle also said the prison should’ve been watching inmates more closely.

“How did they miss them making their weapons in there?” she asked.

Her son and his cellmate had feuded, she said, and her son said not to trust his cellmate’s family. Belle said the cellmate was a relative; his grandfather was her uncle.

Vance said the two had requested to be cellmates when they moved to High Desert and had also been cellmates at Ely.

“He sometimes drinks and gets into trouble and stuff like that,” Belle said of her son. She would tell him to behave himself, but he previously hit another inmate and punched a police officer, according to his mother.

Vance said the Department of Corrections would investigate the death, and that could lead to the cellmate being charged. The case may be referred to the Attorney General’s office to see what, if anything, the department did wrong, she said.

Doing well in prison

Belle said Urban was a member of the Goshute Tribe and described him as a quiet person who had trouble talking about his feelings after his father died.

She tried to get him to join the military, but he didn’t want to do that. He became a meth user and “his money always went to drugs,” she said.

But he seemed to be doing well during his incarceration, asking about his family and saying he missed them. He even talked about taking college classes online, his mother said, and she encouraged him.

Urban would have been eligible for parole in 2025, according to the inmate look-up website.

His mother believed he was safer incarcerated than out in the regular world.

“This should’ve never happened,” she said. “They never should’ve been cellmates.”

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.

Review-Journal staff writer Estelle Atkinson contributed to this report.