Officials say a 38-year-old inmate serving 18 years to life for killing a Reno woman was found dead in his cell at the state's maximum security prison.
The Nevada Department of Corrections says that Joe Nathan Scott was discovered unresponsive and couldn't be revived in his solo cell after he missed breakfast call Tuesday at Ely State Prison.
A cause of death wasn't immediately made public, pending an autopsy by the White Pine County sheriff-coroner.
Scott was convicted of second-degree murder in Washoe County in 2013 in the stabbing death of 58-year-old Tanjernia Whitfield in September 2010. Whitfield was hospitalized for almost a month before she died.
Prison officials say 42 inmates died in custody in 2016.
Scott becomes the first inmate to die in state custody in 2017.
