Warning: This article contains discussion of rape which some readers may find distressing.
A former school teacher who had been convicted of statutory rape is believed to have been killed in his North Carolina prison by one of his fellow inmates.
Ernest Nichols, 60, a former teacher at Ranson Middle School in Charlotte, was arrested in 2009 and originally faced a long list of charges including statutory rape of a person 13, 14, or 15; six counts of second-degree kidnapping, and four counts of second-degree forcible sex offense, among others.
He was suspended without pay from the school after accusations about sexual offenses came to light, and was later banned from the grounds.
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In 2011, Nichols was sentenced to 15 years in prison for statutory rape and was projected to be released in September 2027.
However, on Sunday, October 5, Nichols was found dead in his cell at the Greene Correctional Institution in Maury, North Carolina, around 6:50am local time.
In a statement, the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction reported that Nichols was found unresponsive, prompting staff to perform emergency life-saving procedures.
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Emergency responders were called to the scene, but he was pronounced dead at 7:22am.
His death sent the prison into lockdown, and on October 7 the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation issued an update which stated that another inmate, 41-year-old Wilbert Baldwin, had been served a murder warrant by Greene County Sheriff’s Deputies over Nichols' death.
Baldwin had previously been convicted in 2010 of second degree murder in Richmond County.
The inmate was given no bond after being served with the warrant, and was returned to the Department of Adult Correction to continue serving his current sentence while the State Bureau of Investigation continues to investigate the murder at the request of the Greene County Sheriff.
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Prior to his conviction, a search warrant on Nichols' case reported that he had allegedly raped a girl, who was not a student at his school, several times at his home in Huntersville during a six-month span which began during the fall of 2008.
He also allegedly her watched her have consensual sex with another male.
The warrant, cited by WBTV, also accused Nichols of having posed as his own son on Facebook and asked the girl to 'text message Nichols whenever she entered the shower'.
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Nichols had been a physical education instructor at Ransom Middle School in North Charlotte, having been employed with the school district for 14 years.
If you've been affected by any of the issues in this article, you can contact The National Sexual Assault Hotline on 800.656.HOPE (4673), available 24/7. Or you can chat online via online.rainn.org
Topics: Crime, North Carolina, US News
Emily Brown