William Nesler Allegedly Connected To Prison Homicide

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Delano, CA — The California Department of Corrections reports that former Tuolumne County resident, 43-year-old William Nesler, and another inmate, 35-year-old Edward Holden, attacked a prisoner who died at the Kern Valley State Prison.

It is being investigated as a homicide. The man killed was 56-year-old Timothy Whelan from Los Angeles County, who was received in 2007 and was serving a second-degree murder sentence.

The other alleged attacker, Holden, from Solano County, has been serving a first-degree murder sentence.

Nesler, who was received from Tuolumne County in 2005, has been serving a sentence of life with the possibility of parole for first-degree murder and a concurrent three-year sentence for manufacturing, selling, or possessing a weapon. While incarcerated, he was found in possession of a controlled substance in 2013 and for causing great bodily injury to an inmate in 2019.

The recent incident happened on May 21. State prison officials used chemical agents to quell the attack, and investigators say that an “improvised weapon” was used during the incident. Nelsler and Hoden have been moved to a restricted housing area during the ongoing investigation.

William Nesler is the son of Ellie Nesler, who killed Daniel Mark Driver in 1993 at a courtroom in Tuolumne County. It made national headlines and spurred a conversation about vigilantism. Driver was accused of sexually abusing several boys, including her then-six-year-old son William, at a youth camp in the county. Ellie Nesler passed away in 2008.