HONOLULU -- A guard found Bronson Nunuha's in his prison cell Thursday. Public safety officials said the 26-year-old died after being assaulted at the Saguaro Correctional Facility in Eloy, Ariz.

Hawaii's Public Safety Director Clayton Frank said the state is taking the incident seriously.

"We are sending a team of investigators, three internal affairs investigators from our office and a gang intelligence coordinator that will be departing tomorrow for the Saguro Correctional Facility," Frank said.

Nunuha was serving time for burglary charges.

The Maui native already served about four and half years and was scheduled to be released later this year on Oct. 31.

State Sen. Will Espero visited the prison in 2007 which is owned by the Corrections Corporation of America.

"I know that CCA has stated that they have anti gang programs and measures that could deal with our inmates. We will have to see what was impacted and what was implemented," Espero said.

Espero said it appears the inmate was stabbed but the details of the murder have not been released.

Two months ago, a state inspection of the facility found it complied with set standards.

"Officials have done an excellent job of training their personal in safety precautions security measures and I haven't seen anything otherwise that would inform me that there was any type of breaches in the security," said attorney Michael Green.

Hawaii has roughly 6,000 prisoners and overcrowding has forced the state to send about 1,900 Hawaii inmates to the Arizona facility.

Espero said he doesn't expect these inmates to return home as a result of Nunuha's apparent murder.

"Practically and realistically we don't have the space at this time with the budget crunch the way it is. I don't foresee anything happening with those inmates anytime soon," Espero said.