A 24-year-old Nevada inmate died 18 days after he was hospitalized with severe injuries at High Desert State Prison, and his parents now say guards beat him into a fatal brain injury. A lawsuit filed Monday in Clark County District Court alleges the assault began when officers entered Malik Avila’s cell over suspected cellphone use. The case turns on a grim split between the family’s account and the official death ruling, which classified the death as an accident.
Eileen Avila and Kareem Gray’s 29-page complaint names warden Jeremy Bean, the Nevada Department of Corrections, High Desert guards and medical staff as defendants. It also names Nevada Donor Network and two employees, alleging the family was misled about Avila’s condition and pressured over organ donation. The filing seeks compensatory and punitive damages, policy changes involving training, supervision, use of force and offender medical care, plus a jury trial, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The Nevada Department of Corrections’ public account is spare: Avila was pronounced dead on Nov. 22 at MountainView Hospital after being held at High Desert State Prison. NDOC said he was serving 120 months to life for second-degree murder connected to a 2018 killing in Dayton and that an autopsy had been requested under state law, as detailed in a department release. The lawsuit says Avila was airlifted from the Indian Springs prison on Nov. 4 after suffering the injuries…