A former middle school teacher convicted of repeatedly raping a 15-year-old girl was killed in prison on Sunday by another inmate.
Ernest Nichols, 60, was serving a sentence at Greene Correctional Institution in Maury, North Carolina.
He was found unresponsive in his cell around 6:49 a.m., and emergency responders pronounced him dead at 7:22 a.m.
Highlights
- Ernest Nichols, a former teacher convicted of raping a 15-year-old girl, was killed in prison by inmate Wilbert Baldwin on Sunday.
- Nichols abused the victim over six months in 2008 by impersonating his son on social media and sending explicit messages.
- Wilbert Baldwin, already serving time for second-degree murder, was charged with Nichols' murder and is held without bond.
A former teacher serving a sentence for raping a teenager was killed in prison by a fellow inmate
Image credits: North Carolina Department of Adult Correction
Nichols had been convicted of statutory rape in Mecklenburg County in 2011. He was originally arrested on 27 charges related to sexual abuse of a minor.
He was a teacher at Ranson Middle School in Charlotte for 14 years before being suspended and banned from school grounds.
The inmate charged with killing Nichols is Wilbert Baldwin, 41, who was already serving a sentence for second-degree murder. Baldwin was served a murder warrant on Tuesday and returned to prison without bond, NCSBI reported.
Image credits: North Carolina Department of Adult Correction
Nichols’ victim, who was not a student at his school, reported that he raped her multiple times over six months in 2008, after impersonating his own son on Facebook and MySpace.
She said Nichols would send her sexually explicit messages and ask her to let him know “whenever she entered the shower,” according to an arrest warrant obtained by WBTV.
Nichols would also watch the teenager engage in consensual sex with another person and told her to tell people “she wanted” to have sex with him [Nichols] if anyone asked.
When the teenager’s mother confronted Nichols about the abuse, he called himself a “pig.”
He was arrested in October 2009, and police seized videotapes, sex toys, a video camera, and photographs from his property.
Ernest Nichols was convicted of repeatedly raping a 15-year-old in 2008
Image credits: Google Maps
The State Bureau of Investigation is leading the homicide inquiry, with full cooperation from the Department of Adult Correction.
Greene Correctional facility remains on lockdown as the investigation continues.
Nichols was scheduled for release in September 2027.