Family of deceased High Desert inmate shocked by gunshot wounds on body

CARSON CITY — Before seeing his body, relatives of Carlos Manuel Perez Jr. knew only that he had died Nov. 12 after a fight with another inmate at High Desert State Prison in Indian Springs.

But when Victor Perez, 30, uncovered his younger brother’s body at the mortuary just three days later, he was appalled to find it riddled with gunshot wounds.

“We had to undress him ourselves to take pictures of his wounds,” Perez, who lives in Reno, told the Review-Journal Wednesday night. “Everything was hidden from us.”

The shooting that killed Carlos Perez Jr. last fall involved two handcuffed inmates and at least one guard at the Southern Nevada prison, according to a lawyer for the surviving inmate. Details of the fatality didn’t emerge until Wednesday when the Clark County coroner’s office ruled Perez’s death a homicide, saying the 28-year-old inmate died from multiple gunshot wounds to the head, neck, chest and arms.

Perez had been at High Desert serving an 18-to-48-month sentence for battery since March 13, 2014, according to the Department of Corrections.

How Perez died was not made public until Wednesday. In a Nov. 14 news release, the Department of Corrections said only that an autopsy would be conducted, next of kin was notified and “there is an ongoing investigation and no further details are available.”

There was no mention that Perez had been shot.

Las Vegas attorney Alexis Plunkett told the Review-Journal that her client, the surviving inmate, “was shot three times in the face. … Both of them were handcuffed behind their backs. So this is a really, really terrible shooting.”

In a statement late Wednesday, system officials said inmates Perez and Andrew Arevalo were fighting when a correctional officer fired and wounded both men.

They were treated at the scene by medical staff, and Perez was pronounced dead. Arevalo was taken to University Medical Center in Las Vegas, where he was treated and released the next day back into custody of the Department of Corrections.

The agency said the Office of Inspector General and Las Vegas police were called to gather evidence and conduct a forensic investigation. The Nevada Division of Investigation was also brought in to investigate the shooting and surrounding circumstances.

The officer who fired on the inmates and two other guards were placed on administrative leave and will remain on leave until the investigation is completed, the agency said.

Metro responded to the prison after a report of an assault with a gun just before 9:45 p.m. on Nov. 12, according to agency call logs.

But Metro’s homicide unit has no record of Perez’ death and did not investigate it, department spokesman Officer Larry Hadfield said Wednesday. High Desert called Las Vegas police and told them about the shooting but did not request help in the investigation.

Plunkett said the shooting happened in the “hole,” slang for administrative segregation in the prison where her client remains incarcerated. The incident happened in a hallway between the single inmate cells and shower cells.

“No two inmates are ever allowed out of their cells at the same time” in segregation, she said. “They had both finished showering and against procedure they were let out at the same time to go back to their regular cells.”

The handcuffed inmates got in a scuffle, Plunkett said, when the officer fired.

“This was not a riot,” the lawyer said. “There was no threat to a CO. There was not threat to any other inmates.”

Gov. Brian Sandoval, reached in Las Vegas after an awards ceremony at Booker Elementary School, said he wasn’t made aware of Perez’s death until Wednesday.

“There was an ongoing investigation immediately, when the incident occurred,” Sandoval told the Review-Journal.

He said the investigation, which began with the Department of Corrections, has now been turned over to the state attorney general’s office.

Patricia Cafferata, spokeswoman for Attorney General Adam Laxalt, confirmed Wednesday that the Nevada Division of Investigation is investigating the matter and will forward its report to the attorney general’s office once completed.

Some state lawmakers were surprised when told of the inmate’s death by a reporter.

Sen. Pete Goicoechea, R-Eureka, is chairman of the Senate Government Affairs Committee. High Desert Prison is in his sprawling rural district.

Goicoechea said he was neither aware of the incident nor any subsequent investigation.

“All I can promise you, there will be,” he said.

Assemblywoman Maggie Carlton, D-Las Vegas, former chairwoman of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee and one of the longest currently serving members in the Legislature, said keeping the incident under wraps for four months was unacceptable.

“I think we need to know what’s going on,” Carlton said, adding that the governor needs to get involved.

“This is his department,” she said of Sandoval. “He needs to ask the questions. He needs to know what’s happening in his agencies.”

Las Vegas Review-Journal writer Colton Lochhead contributed to this report. Contact Sandra Chereb at schereb@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901. Find her on Twitter: @SandraChereb. Contact Kimberly De La Cruz at Kdelacruz@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Find her on Twitter: @KimberlyinLV. Contact Chris Kudialis at ckudialis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Find him on Twitter: @kudialisrj.