Overview

• Ernest Nichols, 60, was found unresponsive around 6:50 a.m. Sunday at Greene Correctional Institution in Maury and was pronounced dead about 30 minutes later.
• The facility was placed on lockdown as staff performed life-saving measures and emergency responders were called.
• By Tuesday, the Greene County Sheriff’s Office served a murder warrant on fellow inmate Wilbert Baldwin, 41, who is already serving a second-degree murder sentence, and returned him to state custody.
• Authorities say the death remains under active investigation with no public findings on cause, motive, or method.
• Nichols, a former Charlotte middle-school gym teacher, was convicted in 2011 of statutory rape tied to a 2008 case involving online impersonation, following an arrest that included about 27 charges and the seizure of recordings and other items.