Glee Star Mark Salling Dead In Apparent Suicide

People Magazine reports:

Mark Salling has died in an apparent suicide weeks before being sentenced to prison for possession of child pornography. He was 35. “I can confirm that Mark Salling passed away early this morning. Mark was a gentle and loving person, a person of great creativity, who was doing his best to atone for some serious mistakes and errors of judgment,” his attorney Michael Proctor tells PEOPLE.

The Glee star pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography involving a prepubescent minor Oct. 4, 2017. After striking a plea deal in December, he was due to be sentenced in March and expected to serve four to seven years in prison. Federal investigators say they found more than 25,000 images and 600 videos depicting child pornography on computers and thumb drives that belonged to Salling. The content depicted children as young as 3 years old being abused, according to court documents.

Salling played Noah “Puck” Puckerman on the show from 2009-2015. He was reportedly turned in by his now-former girlfriend after she came across some of the images of young girls on his computer.