A Las Vegas man serving a 12- to 36-month larceny sentence was allegedly stabbed and strangled to death by his cellmate, a convicted killer who massacred a mother and her 10-year-old kid with a hammer, just days before he was about to be freed. His family is now suing the Nevada Department of Corrections for failing to protect him “despite explicit warnings” from his cellmate that he intended to kill the man, according to the lawsuit.
“[The cellmate] had threatened to kill him if the two were housed together,” the civil case submitted by Jacob Herman’s family states.
“Systemic overcrowding, understaffing, and disregard for protective-custody safeguards created the conditions that allowed Mr. Herman’s death,” according to the suit. “Defendants were indifferent to the safety and rights of Jacob and did not take these factors and threats seriously even though Jacob’s cellmate was a violent offender with a life sentence who had nothing to lose.”
The cellmate, who goes by the moniker “King,” is suspected of stabbing and strangling Herman in cellblock 4C of High Desert State Prison in Indian Springs. Herman’s death was confirmed by NDOC officials in a news release issued on July 17, one day after the slaying.
“Herman, 35, was serving a sentence of 12 to 36 months for larceny from a person,” a news release states. “He came to the NDOC on May 20, 2024, from Clark County.”
According to the complaint, King was convicted of “savage sexual assault” of a woman and her 10-year-old child, following which he “bludgeoned them to death with a hammer” and attempted to kill the woman’s husband in the same manner, but survived. King was serving a life sentence without the possibility of release for the murder, robbery, kidnapping, and sexual assault of a juvenile under the age of fourteen.
The complaint accuses King of having a documented history of mental illness, including incidences of “running and shouting in the cellblock,” as well as failing to obey prison officer orders to return to his cell on the day Herman died. But that didn’t stop prison officials from housing Herman, who pled guilty to larceny in 2023, just days before his scheduled release, according to his relatives.
“Most troubling…” According to the complaint, when Jacob was assigned to his cell, his cellmate King informed [corrections personnel] that he did not want Jacob to be placed with him and threatened to kill Jacob if he was. “King had loudly declared to several officers that he would kill Jacob if the defendants house Jacob with him, the defendants nevertheless housed the two inmates in the same cell.”
According to the complaint, High Desert Prison was understaffed and “had too many inmates” for its capacity at the time of Herman’s death.
This resulted in inmates in cellblock 4C being assigned cellmates, and the prison “maintained a dangerous policy of housing inmates about to be released with dangerous inmates serving life sentences,” according to the complaint. Herman was apparently intended to be held in protective custody.
According to the complaint, King murdered Herman around 2:50 a.m. on July 16 and subsequently informed correctional officers of the incident.
“Nevada Department of Corrections and its officers failed to protect Mr. Herman,” according to the complaint! “Herman’s family seeks accountability in the hope that no other family endures such a loss within Nevada’s correctional system.”
