Coroner says cause of convicted pimp’s May death undetermined
The Clark County coroner said Tuesday that his office has not determined what caused the death of a convicted pimp who was found unresponsive in his prison cell in May.
“I am looking into whether we released a cause in error,” Coroner John Fudenberg said.
When a Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter inquired about the case on Monday, a representative of the coroner’s office listed the cause of death as environmental heatstroke.
The inmate, Robert Sharpe III, 31, was found unresponsive in his cell at High Desert State Prison in Indian Springs on May 18.
Prison officials thought he was having a seizure in his single cell, Nevada Department of Corrections spokeswoman Brooke Keast said in an email Tuesday. He was taken to the infirmary, and then to Valley Hospital Medical Center in Las Vegas.
Sharpe collapsed in his hospital room while walking to the bathroom two days later and died, Keast said. He was scheduled to be released from the hospital that day.
He was sentenced last year to life without parole in connection with kidnapping and forcing a teenager into prostitution, along with other felonies.
Contact Blake Apgar at bapgar@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5298. Follow @blakeapgar on Twitter.
