Autopsy Pending On Inmate Jailed Last Week For Having Sex With 16-Year-Old Girl

CASTAIC (CBSLA.com)  —  Authorities have identified the inmate who was found dead in a Castaic jail facility a week after he was sentenced to a year behind bars for having sex with a 16-year-old girl.

The deceased was identified Saturday as 47-year-old Carson resident Herman Charles Nash, a former personal trainer and girls basketball coach.

The death at the Pitchess Detention Center North Facility at 29340 The Old Road was reported to the Sheriff's Homicide Bureau at 4:54 p.m. Wednesday,
according to Deputy Ryan Rouzan.

The circumstances of Nash's death are under investigation and details were not released.

Coroner's Lt. Dave Smith said an autopsy was pending.

Nash worked as a personal trainer in the Los Angeles area and as a basketball coach for the Pacific Elite Basketball Club.

He was sentenced on April 20 to a year in county jail and 52 weeks of sex offender treatment.

After Nash's arrest last June, the female victim said she received one-on-one training sessions.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Anne H. Egerton also barred Nash from having any contact with the girl or any other minors other than his own
children and suspended a four-year, four-month state prison term that Nash would only have had to serve if he violated the conditions of his five-year
probation.

Nash was taken into custody immediately after the sentencing hearing to begin serving his jail term stemming from his March 3 no-contest plea to three
counts of unlawful sexual intercourse.

Defense attorney Robert Schwartz called his client a "beloved figure in the community" and a "remarkable man who made a terrible mistake."

Nash had been scheduled for release on October 9, about halfway through the one-year sentence, according to sheriff's online inmate records.

The Los Angeles Times reported Nash had five children.

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