Middle School Teacher That Repeatedly Raped Teen Is Killed In Jail By Known Murderer

A middle school teacher who was convicted of raping a 15-year-old multiple times has been killed in prison by a convicted murderer. 

Ernest Nichols was discovered dead beside his dormitory bunk in the Greene Correctional Institution at around 6:50 a.m. on October 5. 

Two days later, On October 7, 2025, the Green County Sheriff’s Office charged fellow inmate Wilbert Baldwin, 41, with murder in connection with Nichols’ death. 

Baldwin was reportedly serving a 20-year sentence for second-degree murder that happened in Richmond County back in 2007, which he was convicted of in 2010. 

He was given no bond and has been moved to Maury Correctional Institution. 

Nichols, a former middle school teacher, was convicted in 2011 of statutory rape that happened in Mecklenburg County. He was projected to be released from prison in September 2027. 

According to a search warrant obtained by local outlet WBTV, Nichols raped a 15-year-old girl multiple times in a 6-month-long span beginning in the fall of 2008. Nichols also allegedly watched the teenager have consensual sex with another boy. 

The former gym teacher also reportedly created a fake Facebook account using his teenage son’s identity and messaged the victim, asking her to make up sexually explicit stories and to text him when she entered the shower. He also allegedly told her to tell other people that the sex with Nichols was consensual if anybody asked about it. 

The victim was reportedly not a student at Ransom Middle School, where Nichols worked.