The initial charges did not connect Rashamba Claybrooks to Sam Nash’s death, but the prosecution changed before her 2026 guilty plea.
MILWAUKEE, Wisc. — Rashamba Claybrooks was first charged with arson, disorderly conduct and bail jumping after a 2025 apartment fire. A year later, the same case ended with a felony murder guilty plea and a 24-year prison sentence for the death of 71-year-old Sam Nash.
The progression of the Milwaukee County prosecution shows how the case changed as investigators examined a fatal fire that started during a dispute between Claybrooks and her boyfriend. When prosecutors filed charges April 23, 2025, Claybrooks was accused of arson of a building, arson of property other than a building, disorderly conduct and two misdemeanor counts of bail jumping. Local reports specifically noted that those charges did not then hold her criminally responsible for Nash’s death. By April 2026, however, Claybrooks had pleaded guilty to felony murder tied to arson of a building as well as the separate arson count. A judge later sentenced her to 24 years in prison followed by eight years of extended supervision.
The prosecution’s changing shape followed an emergency that was still being pieced together when the first charges were filed. Milwaukee police were called to an apartment building in the 3000 block of West Capitol Drive shortly before 2:30 p.m. April 8, 2025. The initial call concerned an assault. While officers were traveling to the building, the reported emergency became an active fire. Fire crews responded to the west side of the property, where investigators determined a blaze had started in a first-floor apartment and smoke was moving into higher floors.
According to investigators, the first-floor unit was occupied by Claybrooks’ boyfriend. He said the two had been arguing during the day, including while they shopped at Walmart. After returning to the apartment, the disagreement continued. The boyfriend told investigators that Claybrooks threw something at him and that he responded by telling her she had to move out. Authorities said Claybrooks then took cardboard and loose paper and used them to ignite a closet containing clothing.
The boyfriend’s actions after the fire began became part of the factual sequence described in the criminal investigation. He said he smelled smoke after Claybrooks left, saw the closet burning and went into the hallway for a fire extinguisher. He attempted to put out the flames. Later, he again detected smoke and saw that the fire had grown. Investigators ultimately classified the blaze as intentionally set. Those findings formed the foundation for the arson case prosecutors filed about two weeks after the fire.
At the same time, authorities were investigating what had happened to Nash. He lived in a third-floor apartment directly above the first-floor area where the fire began. Investigators said smoke traveled upward, and video from the fire showed smoke entering Nash’s window. Nash’s son eventually found him unresponsive inside the apartment after going there to look for him. Authorities determined that Nash died from smoke inhalation, connecting his death to conditions created by the blaze.
Yet that connection was not immediately translated into a homicide charge. CBS 58 reported on April 24, 2025, that the criminal complaint charging Claybrooks with five offenses did not tie the investigation of Nash’s death to those counts. FOX6 similarly reported that Claybrooks had not been charged in connection with the death and quoted the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office as saying the investigation was ongoing. At that early stage, authorities had an intentional-fire case and a dead resident, but the publicly filed accusations had not yet combined them into the offense that would later drive the final disposition.
Nash’s family noticed the gap. His sister, Debra Nash, told local reporters she wanted the death reflected in the charges. Her comments came as the family was also questioning how Nash remained inside the building after relatives said they had asked responders to check for him. She said family members had been told the building was clear before Nash’s son later located his father. The Milwaukee Fire Department told CBS 58 at the time that the matter remained under investigation and said it could not discuss additional details.
The court record later moved in a different direction from the original charging document. Reports reviewing Claybrooks’ case said she at one point pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease to the charges against her. By April 2026, she had changed her plea. She admitted felony murder based on arson of a building and also pleaded guilty to arson of property other than a building. The disorderly-conduct and bail-jumping counts were dismissed under the plea agreement, according to court records reviewed by People.
The felony murder plea placed Nash’s death at the center of the final criminal judgment without requiring a trial. The offense reflected that a death resulted from the underlying arson conduct to which Claybrooks admitted guilt. Public reports of the plea and sentencing do not provide a full transcript explaining every step by which prosecutors moved from the initial five charges to the eventual felony murder resolution. They do establish, however, that the legal position in April 2026 was materially different from the one announced immediately after the fire.
That change also altered the significance of the sentencing. If the case had remained only an arson prosecution, Nash’s death would have remained outside the offenses of conviction. Instead, the final judgment included felony murder, and the court imposed 24 years of imprisonment plus eight years of extended supervision. FOX6 reported the sentence after citing information from the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office and Wisconsin circuit court records.
Behind that legal development was the death of a man whose family said he had long supported others. Nash was identified in later reporting as a former U.S. Marine. His relatives described him as a caretaker who stepped into major responsibilities for siblings and his children after the deaths of his parents. Debra Nash recalled that her brother encouraged her professional goals and helped her prepare for a licensing exam. The details gave a personal dimension to a prosecution whose formal record necessarily focused on charges, pleas and sentencing.
The case also illustrates the difference between an early criminal complaint and the final disposition of a prosecution. Initial charges describe what prosecutors are prepared to allege at a particular point; they do not necessarily establish the charges that will ultimately be pursued or resolved. In Claybrooks’ case, authorities publicly said in April 2025 that the investigation into Nash’s death was continuing. The later felony murder plea shows that the final case incorporated a consequence the original complaint had not yet charged.
Claybrooks is now serving the prison term ordered in 2026 and is scheduled to remain under extended supervision for eight years after the custodial portion of her sentence. Her guilty pleas resolved the principal criminal questions arising from the fire without a trial, ending a prosecution that developed from an intentional-arson allegation into a felony murder conviction tied directly to Nash’s death.
Author note: Last updated September 21, 2026.