A 32-year-old ex-inmate discharged from Nevada prison just eight months ago is back in custody after allegedly pulling a screwdriver on a corrections officer in the parking lot of High Desert State Prison near Las Vegas. Cory Tyler Nixon was arrested after a corrections officer said Nixon slammed the trunk of the officer's own vehicle shut and threatened him with the tool before fleeing the property in a red SUV.
The officer arrived at the prison parking lot at about 3:35 p.m. on August 11 and noticed the same red SUV circling the lot, according to KLAS 8 News Now. The officer told investigators the suspect pulled a screwdriver from his pocket and tried to strike him with it, then slammed the trunk shut before running back to the SUV and driving off the prison grounds. An earlier, inaccurate report that the suspect had pulled a gun on the officer was not borne out, the station notes.
The officer grabbed a department-issued baton during the confrontation, per the outlet's account. Troopers later spotted the red SUV headed southbound on U.S. 95, and Nevada Highway Patrol troopers detained the driver in what was described as a high-risk traffic stop before a trooper took him into custody. A Nevada State Police arrest report identified the driver as Nixon.
A Second Incident Weeks Earlier
Nevada State Police troopers linked Nixon to another incident outside the same prison on July 24, according to the same report. A man matching Nixon's description walked into the prison facility that day and threatened guards, and a man matching his description also threw a large rock through the windshield of an Audi sedan belonging to a doctor on the property, KLAS reports.
Nixon now faces charges of assault with a deadly weapon and destruction of property valued between $250 and $5,000, along with driving with a suspended license, per the station's reporting. Under Nevada Revised Statute 200.471, assault with a deadly weapon is a Category B felony carrying a mandatory prison sentence of one to six years and a fine of up to $5,000, according to the Benjamin Durham Law Firm. Nevada law defines a deadly weapon broadly enough to include everyday tools like a screwdriver, so long as the object is readily capable of causing substantial bodily harm under the circumstances of its use, the firm notes. Separately, the vandalism charge tied to the doctor's damaged Audi falls under a gross misdemeanor for malicious destruction of property valued between $250 and $5,000, which carries up to a year in county jail and a fine of up to $2,000, according to The Defenders Law Firm.
A Familiar Face at the Prison Gates
Nixon was discharged from Nevada prison on December 26, 2025, months before he allegedly returned to the same facility twice. Court records reviewed by FindLaw show the Court of Appeals of Nevada affirmed his conviction in July 2020 for voluntary manslaughter and battery with the use of a deadly weapon, stemming from an Alford plea in Clark County's Eighth Judicial District Court, and he was sentenced to six to fifteen years in state prison. Nixon also has a documented history of evading custody: in October 2023, he was arrested in Fernley on a parole and probation warrant and briefly escaped on foot from a Lyon County Sheriff's Office substation holding cell after a deputy left the door unbolted, according to 2News Nevada. He was recaptured shortly afterward.
Nixon was taken to the Clark County Detention Center for booking, but the station's report notes he is no longer in custody there. What drew him back to the prison grounds twice, whether he was seeking a specific staff member, and the current status of his criminal proceedings all remain open questions.
A Prison Already Under Scrutiny
High Desert State Prison, roughly 40 miles northwest of Las Vegas along U.S. 95, is Nevada's largest correctional facility, with a capacity of 4,176 inmates spread across 12 housing units on a 160-acre site, according to the Nevada Department of Corrections. In September 2024, the department designated HDSP as the state's primary maximum-security institution, completing a swap of nearly 2,000 inmates with Ely State Prison to move high-risk prisoners closer to Las Vegas medical and law enforcement resources, per KTVN. The facility also serves as the primary intake and classification center for male inmates entering the system from Southern Nevada, according to the Nevada Legislature, which helps explain why former inmates, medical staff and visitors regularly pass through its grounds and parking areas.
The parking-lot confrontation adds to a rough stretch for HDSP. Hoodline has previously reported on inmate deaths at the prison earlier this year, part of a pattern of scrutiny that state officials have linked to gang activity and drug debts inside the facility. That unrest led the Nevada Department of Corrections to place HDSP under modified operations to control contraband and inmate movement, according to the earlier Hoodline reporting.
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