Inmate stabbed to death at prison northwest of Las Vegas

An inmate was stabbed and killed inside High Desert State Prison, Nevada’s maximum-security facility northwest of Las Vegas.

On Jan. 5, Brandon Hanson was pronounced dead at the prison. The Clark County coroner’s office ruled his death a homicide and said Hanson died from a stab wound to the chest.

Hanson, 35, was serving a sentence for robbery.

The prison replaced Ely State Prison as the state’s highest security facility in September after 2,000 inmates were transferred between the two. Ely now has medium-security status.

This was not the first fatal stabbing at High Desert since the swap, which prison officials previously said followed “an uptick in gang activity and violence” at Ely and was part of an “effort to increase the safety of both staff and offenders.”

Once the transfer was complete, two inmates at High Desert were hospitalized after a stabbing at the prison on Sept. 18. And on Nov. 7, Hawk Urban, 27, was stabbed to death after a fight with his cellmate, his mother said.

The Nevada Department of Corrections had not yet responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.

Contact Estelle Atkinson at eatkinson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @estelleatkinson.bsky.social on Bluesky and @estellelilym on X.