Rashamba Claybrooks pleaded guilty after a 2025 fire she started in her boyfriend’s apartment killed a neighbor two floors above.

MILWAUKEE, Wisc. — A Wisconsin woman has been sentenced to 24 years in prison after admitting she intentionally started a fire in her boyfriend’s apartment during a dispute, setting off a blaze that killed 71-year-old Sam Nash in a third-floor unit above them.

Rashamba Claybrooks, 29, pleaded guilty in April 2026 to felony murder tied to arson of a building and to arson of property other than a building, according to court records cited by local news organizations. A Milwaukee County judge ordered Claybrooks to serve 24 years in prison followed by eight years of extended supervision. The sentence closes the main criminal case more than a year after a domestic dispute on April 8, 2025, turned into a fatal apartment fire near 30th Street and Capitol Drive.

The case began as an argument between Claybrooks and her boyfriend but quickly placed an entire apartment building at risk. According to a criminal complaint and an arrest affidavit described in news reports, the couple had been arguing earlier that day, including while shopping at Walmart. After they returned to the apartment, the dispute continued. The boyfriend told investigators that Claybrooks threw an object at him and that he told her she would have to move out. Investigators said Claybrooks then gathered cardboard and loose paper and used them to start a fire inside a closet that contained stacks of clothing.

Claybrooks left the apartment, according to the account her boyfriend gave investigators. He soon smelled smoke and saw flames coming from the closet. He went into the hallway, obtained a fire extinguisher and tried to put out the fire. For a time, the attempt appeared to have helped. The boyfriend later smelled smoke again, however, and found that the closet fire had grown larger. Fire investigators ultimately determined that the blaze had been intentionally set. Police were originally dispatched shortly before 2:30 p.m. for an assault complaint, but the call was updated to report an active fire while officers were on the way.

The flames began in a first-floor apartment on the west side of the building, but smoke moved upward into apartments on the floors above. Nash lived on the third floor, two stories above the unit where investigators said the fire started. Video reviewed during the investigation showed smoke entering his apartment through a window, according to the arrest affidavit described by Law&Crime. The spread of smoke, rather than direct contact with flames, proved deadly. Authorities determined that Nash died from smoke inhalation.

Questions about Nash’s whereabouts emerged as firefighters worked at the building. Early reports said two people had been removed and evaluated at the scene, and family members said they were told the building had been cleared. Nash’s sister, Debra Nash, told local reporters that she had been speaking with her brother around the time the emergency began and grew worried when she could no longer reach him. She said she went to the scene and asked responders about him. The assurance that the building had been cleared briefly eased the family’s fears, but Nash still had not been located.

His son later went into his father’s third-floor apartment to look for him. According to investigators, the son did not see Nash during an initial search. On another search, he found his father unresponsive in the apartment. Reports based on the arrest affidavit said Nash was near a kitchen table and wall. Emergency personnel were called, but Nash did not survive. Contemporary reporting differed on whether he was formally pronounced dead at the building or after being taken for medical treatment, but authorities consistently identified smoke inhalation from the apartment fire as the cause of his death.

The discovery created a second set of questions for Nash’s relatives. Debra Nash publicly asked how her brother had been missed after family members said they had specifically told responders that he lived inside the building. CBS 58 reported that the Milwaukee Fire Department said at the time that the fire and police investigations were ongoing and that the department could not provide additional details. FOX6 also sought comment from the department during the early investigation. The family’s concerns became part of the public account of the case even as investigators focused on identifying who had set the fire.

When prosecutors first charged Claybrooks later in April 2025, the criminal case did not yet include a homicide count. She initially faced arson of a building, arson of property, disorderly conduct and two misdemeanor bail-jumping counts, according to court records and local reports. CBS 58 noted at the time that the complaint did not connect Nash’s death to the charges then filed, while the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office said the investigation was continuing. Nash’s family publicly pressed for his death to be reflected in the prosecution.

The case later changed substantially. By April 2026, Claybrooks entered guilty pleas to felony murder connected to arson of a building and to arson of property other than a building. Reports reviewing the court record said the disorderly-conduct and bail-jumping charges were dismissed as part of the plea agreement. Claybrooks had previously entered pleas of not guilty by reason of mental disease, according to court records reviewed by People. Her later guilty pleas removed the need for a trial over whether she committed the offenses covered by the agreement.

Nash’s relatives have described him as much more than the resident who happened to live above the fire. Family accounts published after his death identified him as a former U.S. Marine and a man who frequently stepped into a caretaker role. His sister said he supported siblings and his children after the deaths of their parents and helped relatives through difficult periods. She also described ways he had encouraged her personally, including helping her prepare for a professional licensing exam. Those details became part of the family’s effort to keep attention on the person lost in a case initially reported largely as an arson investigation.

The 2026 sentence establishes the criminal consequences of a sequence that began with a dispute inside one apartment and ended with the death of a resident who was not part of that argument. Claybrooks is to serve 24 years in prison before the eight-year period of extended supervision ordered by the court. The sentencing resolves the principal criminal charges arising from Nash’s death while leaving the family’s earlier questions about the response to the April 2025 fire documented in public reporting.

Author note: Last updated September 21, 2026.