Prominent Gymnastics Coach Marvin Sharp Found Dead In Marion County Jail Cell

A prominent Indianapolis gymnastics coach who coached Olympic competitors has been found dead in the Marion County Jail where he was being held on pending charges of child molesting, sexual misconduct with a minor and possession of child pornography. Marvin Sharp, 49, died last night due to an apparent suicide according to various news reports.

Sharp had retained the services of high-profile criminal defense attorney James Voyles following his arrest on August 25. Court records indicate a "no bond hold" order was issued at that time along with a no contract order. Online court records don't indicate what, if any, bond amount had been set. A jury trial date of October 28 had been scheduled.

UPDATE: WTHR is reporting Sharp's apparent suicide came days after federal investigators decided to file nine additional child pornography images based on the discovery of nude images he had allegedly taken of several of his former gymnastic students who were all underage at the time.

. . . In all cases, Sharp asked to take pictures of the girls. It doesn't appear that the girls' parents were present during the photo shoots. Sharp allegedly showed the parents photos from the shoot that appeared to be appropriate, but kept others for himself that showed the genitals or pubic area.

The girls were wearing leotards, adult dress shirts, sundresses, swim suits and various other clothing in the photo shoots. In at least a couple of cases, the photos showed girls jumping in dresses without underwear.

According to court documents, Sharp took hundreds of photos of some of the girls, although it was a much smaller number of photos in which their private areas were exposed. (For example, of 425 photos Sharp took of one victim, 15 were inappropriate.) In all, investigators found over 125 images of children under 12 from Sharp's Gym that showed their private parts exposed.

Sharp was also found to be in possession of pornography that showed toddlers in sexually explicit conduct. Investigators say Sharp had been collecting photos of child pornography for "a very long period of time."