Arizona inmate dies at Vegas UMC

KINGMAN, Ariz. — The father of an inmate killed at a prison in northwest Arizona says the family wants answers.

The Arizona Department of Corrections has supplied little information about the Jan. 19 death of Neil Early, 23, at University Medical Center in Las Vegas.

The agency is cloaking details of its criminal investigation at the state prison in Golden Valley that is privately operated under contract with the Utah-based Management &Training Corp. It’s the same prison where inadequate security was blamed for the 2010 escape of three inmates that led to the slayings of an Oklahoma couple in New Mexico.

Prisons spokesman Bill Lamoreaux said he couldn’t say when Early’s injuries were discovered or in which prison unit he was incarcerated. The inmate’s father, Keith Early, said he learned his son was held in the Cerbat unit when he was beaten Jan. 16.

Early said he doesn’t have a timeline, but that his son was transported to Kingman Regional Medical Center and then flown to Las Vegas. A guard at the hospital in Las Vegas indicated Early’s injured son had trouble standing, had been placed in a wheelchair and had been rolled into the prison infirmary, he said.

Early said he, his wife and their 14-year-old son drove to Las Vegas knowing the prognosis for Neil was grim following a Jan. 17 call from the prison pastor.

“It was very short and frank. He said Neil’s not doing good,” Early said. “From the beginning they said he’s not going to make it.”

Early said they learned Neil had brain trauma, a nearly 4 millimeter-long skull fracture and other injuries, all above the neck. He said surgery was performed to relieve pressure on the brain.

The younger Early was declared brain dead by the morning of Jan. 19, his father said.

Early said one unnamed person indicated his son was beaten over a debt of some sort, and an unnamed nurse said investigators found a sock filled with padlocks, which apparently were used to beat his son.

“So he was beat down with a sock and padlocks,” Early said.

Arizona prisons and Management &Training officials promised better communication with local law enforcement officials after an official report that addresses security flaws at the prison is released.

Prison officials said Early was serving time for convictions involving organized retail theft and possessing drug paraphernalia.

Early said his family thinks his son lives on in a sense because at least three of his organs were harvested after he was declared brain dead.

Early has constructed a website at neilearly.com that both honors his son and solicits information about his death. Images of his son scroll across the top of the page while his father remembers a teenager who played Junior PGA golf tournaments.

“He was really good,” Early said. “He had the most beautiful swing.”

Services will be held Feb. 7.