Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2020 | 10:15 p.m.
Days before the COVID-19 pandemic triggered lockdowns across Nevada, a man pleaded guilty to federal charges out of Las Vegas. He was sent to a private prison in Pahrump to await sentencing.
Brandon Patton's public defender deemed him to be at risk: An obese man with heart problems, pulmonary disease, diabetes and high blood pressure would likely not fare well with the novel coronavirus.
In denying his emergency temporary release, a judge and prosecutors said Patton — who had pleaded guilty to gun and drug charges and had violated probation in another case — was a flight risk and danger to the community.
On Sept. 26, a month after the judge denied his latest motion, Patton was hospitalized with COVID-19, according to court records and Nevada’s Federal Public Defender’s Office.
Patton died Thursday, three days before a Nevada Southern Detention Center corrections officer died “due to a potential COVID-19-related issue,” CoreCivic, a private prison company, said Tuesday in a prepared statement.
Officials didn’t identify the decedent out of respect to the officer’s family, CoreCivic said.
They’re the first two known COVID-19-related deaths connected to Nevada prisons. The Nevada Department of Corrections hasn’t reported any fatalities because of the virus in its 12 facilities, which have disclosed 173 total confirmed cases, according to state figures.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons doesn’t run any facilities in Nevada. The CoreCivic facility in Pahrump — the only prison that houses federal inmates in Nevada — contracts with the U.S. Marshals Service and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
Patton was a passenger in a vehicle pulled over by the Nevada Highway Patrol near Las Vegas on May 29, 2019. In his possession, troopers found nearly a pound of marijuana, more than 6 pounds of meth, and about a third of a pound of heroin — all three of which he intended to sell, Patton admitted in his plea agreement. As a felon, he wasn’t allowed to possess the two guns found on him.
He was also hit with a federal probation violation out of North Dakota, where he was from and where he’d been convicted of drug charges, the agreement said.
Patton pleaded guilty on March 3, a couple of weeks before Nevada officials increased restrictions to curb the spread of the virus. On March 18, Patton first petitioned the court to be released, citing his underlying conditions, according to records. The court’s decision to deny his request was confirmed through an appellate court.
On July 31, Patton’s team tried again to have him released. In the motion, Rene Valladares, the federal public defender, and Brandon Jaroch, the assistant federal public defender, wrote that the facility was a “tinderbox for disease,” citing crowded conditions and a growing number of cases and complaints for alleged cross-contamination and unprofessional behavior from staff who’d say, “It is what it is,” “I hope you have a good lawyer,” and “I’ll be waiting for your lawsuit. Good luck with that,” according to the motion.
Prosecutors responded to the motion on Aug. 7 by saying that Patton “has neither contracted the virus nor has (the prison) been crippled by it” in four months since his incarceration. They cited no new cases that week and noted that his sentencing was only six weeks away. “Patton’s characterization of confinement as ‘the death penalty’ is unfounded. If anything, Patton’s plans upon release — to fly across the country and live with family he has not seen since his arrest — are avoidable hazards,” prosecutors wrote.
U.S. District Judge Andrew Gordon sided with prosecutors on Aug. 26, according to court records.
“Mr. Patton’s health conditions made death a predictable outcome if he contracted COVID-19. His death was avoidable,” Valladares wrote in a press release.
“I hope Brandon’s struggle with the agonizing complications of COVID-19 will bring a heightened awareness to the substantially increased risks incarcerated persons with serious medical vulnerabilities face when they cannot take any additional precautions to protect themselves,” Jaroch wrote. “This case should also bring more attention to the plight of families who are unable to freely communicate with health care providers or be present with their loved ones in their final moments.”
CoreCivic only commented on its employee’s death. “We also want to honor our employee's work to keep those in our care and our communities safe and healthy. Those efforts have never been more critical than during this unprecedented pandemic. We are eternally grateful for her dedication, service and selflessness.”
On Friday, Patton’s lawyers filed a motion in court to dismiss the case: “In the coming days, Mr. Patton’s family and friends will begin the process of bringing his remains home and eulogizing him as their son, brother and father,” the motion said. “Mr. Patton’s final moments were almost certainly filled with terror and confusion, ‘alone, gasping for air thousands of miles away in Nevada’ as he had feared.”
