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#331 Maggie Freleng with Deborah Nicholls · Wrongful Conviction

0:06
Speaker 1: The evening of March sixth, two thousand and three, was
0:09
Speaker 1: a typical Thursday for the Nichols family. That night, Deborah
0:12
Speaker 1: Nichols put her three energetic kids to bed. After her
0:16
Speaker 1: husband Tim got home, she left the house to interview
0:18
Speaker 1: an employee for their karaoke business. When she returned home,
0:22
Speaker 1: her world had been turned upside down that night.
0:29
Speaker 2: I went from just needing to hire someone to fill
0:33
Speaker 2: a shift to losing my whole little family.
0:41
Speaker 1: It was a mother's worst nightmare. And when it was over,
0:44
Speaker 1: all three of Deb's children had died in a terrible accident.
0:49
Speaker 1: She was so stricken with grief that she couldn't bring
0:53
Speaker 1: herself to attend their funeral.
0:57
Speaker 2: I was trying to get ready to go to the
0:59
Speaker 2: funeral and my body was breaking down and I was
1:04
Speaker 2: shaking so bad, and I just had to sit down
1:08
Speaker 2: and give in and surrender. I can't go. I can't
1:13
Speaker 2: do it. I couldn't imagine seeing three, three caskets. It
1:20
Speaker 2: was too much. It was too much. My name is
1:28
Speaker 2: Deb Nichols. I'm currently serving three life sentences at Denver
1:33
Speaker 2: Women's Correctional.
1:34
Speaker 1: Facility from LoVa for Good. This is wrongful conviction with
1:41
Speaker 1: Maggie Freeling today dead. Nichols Deborah Nichols was born May fourth,
1:57
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty seven, born Michigan. She grew up in a large,
2:02
Speaker 1: blended family.
2:04
Speaker 2: Having seven brothers and sisters was a blast. We had
2:07
Speaker 2: a great childhood. Northern Michigan has beautiful weather. It's like
2:15
Speaker 2: the perfect four seasons, so we as children took full
2:21
Speaker 2: rain with all of it and did a lot of
2:23
Speaker 2: skating and skiing and swimming, or just going down to
2:27
Speaker 2: the end of the street to the bay and playing
2:29
Speaker 2: in the water all day, all summer long. We had
2:33
Speaker 2: so much fun.
2:38
Speaker 1: So can you tell listeners about Zebra? What's she like?
2:42
Speaker 1: What was she like growing up?
2:44
Speaker 3: Well, as you probably gathered talking to her, she's a
2:48
Speaker 3: pretty strong girl.
2:49
Speaker 1: This is Deb's father, Doug bamb Gardner.
2:52
Speaker 3: Pretty strong will and has no problems doing things her
2:57
Speaker 3: way and trying to tat what she's headed for. She
3:03
Speaker 3: was always that way all of her life.
3:08
Speaker 1: Her family later moved to Colorado, but for college, Deb
3:11
Speaker 1: carved her own path and moved out to California. After
3:15
Speaker 1: studying at San Diego for a year, Deb left the
3:17
Speaker 1: West Coast and joined her family in Colorado. When Deb
3:22
Speaker 1: was twenty four, she gave birth to her first child,
3:24
Speaker 1: a son. They called him JJ.
3:28
Speaker 2: JJ's nickname was Peanut, and he was just absolutely beautiful,
3:33
Speaker 2: like he was my little buddy, my little man, and
3:39
Speaker 2: we did everything together.
3:44
Speaker 1: Deb went on to have a second son, Spencer, but tragically,
3:48
Speaker 1: when he was three months old, Spencer passed away from
3:51
Speaker 1: sudden infant death syndrome, also known as sid's. Despite her loss,
3:57
Speaker 1: Deb continued to try and be the best mom she
3:59
Speaker 1: could JJ. By nineteen ninety three, she was living in
4:03
Speaker 1: a suburb of Colorado Springs, working two jobs and going
4:06
Speaker 1: to school. One night, she went out to a local
4:09
Speaker 1: bar to let loose and indulge in one of her passions,
4:12
Speaker 1: singing karaoke. What is your karaoke song? Do you have
4:16
Speaker 1: a go to?
4:19
Speaker 2: I really liked What's Up with four Non Blonde?
4:23
Speaker 1: I do love that song.
4:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's a good one.
4:29
Speaker 1: When Deb walked in, a man was already at the mic.
4:31
Speaker 1: She recognized the song right away.
4:35
Speaker 2: You Are My Shining Star, which is one of my
4:38
Speaker 2: favorite songs in like eighth grade. And he was really
4:42
Speaker 2: cute and he was new and I had never seen
4:44
Speaker 2: him before, and I was like, hey, that's one of
4:46
Speaker 2: my favorite songs, you know, come sit by Me.
4:51
Speaker 1: His name was Tim Nichols, and they hit it off.
4:55
Speaker 2: We talked all night long and we basically never left
4:58
Speaker 2: each other's side after that.
5:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, described him to me, what what does he like?
5:07
Speaker 2: Tim is a lot of powerhouse and a little guy.
5:14
Speaker 2: He's like five nine. He had integrity, which is something
5:22
Speaker 2: that was so hard to find. It such a rare
5:25
Speaker 2: quality nowadays. And because he's just such a good guy
5:28
Speaker 2: through the right thing no matter what. And I that
5:33
Speaker 2: was the kind of guy I wanted to be with forever.
5:45
Speaker 1: Tim and Deb were best friends, and Tim loved JJ
5:48
Speaker 1: like his own son.
5:50
Speaker 2: Tim and JJ were just like so bonded that Tim
5:57
Speaker 2: adopted JJ and we got married and started our family.
6:05
Speaker 2: I have to say it, I loved getting married. I
6:07
Speaker 2: loved being married. It really does take your relationship to
6:12
Speaker 2: a different level.
6:16
Speaker 1: Soon after that, in nineteen ninety seven, their daughter Sophia
6:19
Speaker 1: was born.
6:21
Speaker 2: She was absolutely amazing. She loved people to be happy,
6:26
Speaker 2: she was always smiling, She was she was the essence
6:31
Speaker 2: of joy.
6:33
Speaker 1: Two years later, their second daughter, Sierra came. They nicknamed
6:36
Speaker 1: her Rara.
6:39
Speaker 2: That little girl was just so calming and so peaceful.
6:43
Speaker 2: And she would just like go around the room and
6:47
Speaker 2: check everything out. She was just so little and delicate
6:51
Speaker 2: and beautiful. Jg was my passion, Sophia was my joy,
6:57
Speaker 2: and ra Ra was my peace. They were my absolute world.
7:03
Speaker 2: I was so blessed.
7:14
Speaker 1: The family was thriving. Deb was working on getting her
7:17
Speaker 1: real estate license. They had started a construction business and
7:20
Speaker 1: even bought a house. They were busy, but they found
7:24
Speaker 1: time for each other too.
7:26
Speaker 2: You know, once I have was done nursing, we started
7:29
Speaker 2: going out, you know, on date nights, and we went
7:33
Speaker 2: to a karaoke bar, and like it was so fun,
7:37
Speaker 2: like soul food.
7:38
Speaker 1: Deb and Tim decided to start a side business together,
7:41
Speaker 1: doing something they loved, the thing that had brought them together,
7:45
Speaker 1: a karaoke business.
7:47
Speaker 2: We took the plunge and started our own and got
7:50
Speaker 2: really good equipment and you know, I got all those
7:54
Speaker 2: songs like the Gries duets and stuff. It was just
7:58
Speaker 2: really fun. It was for pure enjoyment, just go be
8:01
Speaker 2: able to let loose and enjoy yourself.
8:05
Speaker 1: Deb, Tim and their family had everything going for.
8:09
Speaker 2: Them, living the American dream basically.
8:13
Speaker 1: But that dream soon came to a crashing halt. On
8:20
Speaker 1: the evening of March sixth, two thousand and three, Deb
8:23
Speaker 1: was home with her three children, getting them ready for bed.
8:27
Speaker 2: JJ was going to a birthday party on Friday, which
8:31
Speaker 2: this lady was taking ten little twelve year old skiing.
8:35
Speaker 2: So I got a bunch of you know, chips and
8:38
Speaker 2: stuff and bought the girls some sparkly tattoos, old temporary tattoos,
8:44
Speaker 2: because you can't get one kid's stuff without the other
8:46
Speaker 2: kids getting stuff too.
8:49
Speaker 1: She says. The kids were really hyper that night.
8:52
Speaker 2: I had to put them back to bed like three
8:54
Speaker 2: or four times, because you know, the girls were excited
8:56
Speaker 2: about these sparkly tattoos, and JJ was excited about his
9:01
Speaker 2: birthday party excursion.
9:02
Speaker 1: The next day, the kids finally fell asleep, which gave
9:07
Speaker 1: Deb time to catch up on some chores around the house.
9:09
Speaker 1: Tim got home from work around eleven that night, and
9:12
Speaker 1: he was tired.
9:13
Speaker 2: I knew he'd worked really hard all week, and I
9:17
Speaker 2: told Tim, you know, I'd cleaned the house, I lick
9:21
Speaker 2: candles for the ambiance, and I literally had dinner in
9:25
Speaker 2: the oven and his favorite beer in the freezers so
9:29
Speaker 2: he could just have a beer in dinner.
9:31
Speaker 1: Deb had an appointment to go meet a new karaoke
9:34
Speaker 1: jockey for their business.
9:36
Speaker 2: And I was like, you know, I have to go
9:37
Speaker 2: to this kJ interview. Make sure you blow up the
9:40
Speaker 2: candles and I left.
9:45
Speaker 1: After the interview, DEB hung around the bar like she
9:47
Speaker 1: usually did. She had a few drinks and sang some karaoke, and.
9:51
Speaker 2: Because I had a drink or two, I didn't want
9:54
Speaker 2: to drive.
9:55
Speaker 1: So when the bar was closing around two am, DEB
9:58
Speaker 1: asked one of her employees, Carl, for a ride home.
10:02
Speaker 1: Everything was business as usual until they turned onto deb Street.
10:07
Speaker 2: You could see the emergency lights as we were coming
10:10
Speaker 2: up the street, and the closer we got to my street,
10:17
Speaker 2: the more emergency vehicles that we could see. And so
10:24
Speaker 2: I started a panic and I just asked Carl to
10:28
Speaker 2: stop the car, and I got out of the car
10:31
Speaker 2: and started running around the corner and saw it was
10:35
Speaker 2: my house and it was on fire. And the closer
10:40
Speaker 2: I got, you know, there's probably two hundred people in
10:45
Speaker 2: front of my house. And I kept hearing everyone go,
10:48
Speaker 2: you know, that's her, that's the mom, and you know,
10:52
Speaker 2: the panic was setting in. I was literally terrified, and
10:57
Speaker 2: my brain was like, I just I needed to get
10:59
Speaker 2: to the back and make sure the kids are okay,
11:02
Speaker 2: And and these cops and these firemen were like pushing
11:09
Speaker 2: me back, say, and it was almost like they were
11:13
Speaker 2: wrestling me to the ground because I'm like, you know,
11:16
Speaker 2: I need to go see if my children are okay.
11:19
Speaker 2: I need to get back to the house.
11:22
Speaker 1: Officials told her she needed to go to the hospital,
11:24
Speaker 1: but they weren't telling her what was going on.
11:27
Speaker 2: It looked really bad. But if the only way I
11:31
Speaker 2: could get information was to go to the hospital, it
11:35
Speaker 2: was like fine, And so I went. And the whole
11:39
Speaker 2: ride to the hospital, like the policeman didn't tell me anything.
11:55
Speaker 1: This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company.
12:00
Speaker 1: AIG is committed to corporate social responsibility and to making
12:04
Speaker 1: a positive difference in the lives of its employees and
12:07
Speaker 1: in the communities where they work and live. In light
12:10
Speaker 1: of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance, and
12:13
Speaker 1: in recognition of AIG's commitment to criminal and social justice reform,
12:17
Speaker 1: the AIG pro Bono Program provides free legal services and
12:21
Speaker 1: other support to underrepresented communities and individuals. When deb got
12:33
Speaker 1: to the hospital, she was taken to a room to
12:35
Speaker 1: wait for the doctor to come and talk with her.
12:38
Speaker 2: And he walked in and she said, JJS is dead.
12:44
Speaker 2: Good night, remember saying dead. It no no one anything
12:49
Speaker 2: about dead. And then he said sar May the youngest.
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Speaker 2: She died off, and.
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Speaker 4: I felt my mind leave my body and the adrenaline
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Speaker 4: and my body took over, and I.
13:12
Speaker 5: Ran out of the hospital and my only thought was
13:15
Speaker 5: I just.
13:16
Speaker 2: Need to go.
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Speaker 5: We'll go, I mean walk to the Pacific Ocean and
13:23
Speaker 5: that's it doesn't make any sense that I now look
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Speaker 5: back and like that was the.
13:28
Speaker 2: Adrenaline and the panic and where I always feel the safest,
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Speaker 2: on the beach by the water.
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Speaker 1: It turns out Sophia was still alive, but she didn't
13:44
Speaker 1: have long to live.
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Speaker 2: And I went back in the hospital and they led
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Speaker 2: me to Sophia's room and she was had tubes everywhere.
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Speaker 2: There was a little clear spot on her little chest,
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Speaker 2: and I was able to put my head on her
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Speaker 2: chest and put my ear to her heart, and I
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Speaker 2: could hear her heart beating, and it was beating so fast.
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Speaker 1: Tim was also in critical condition. In the process of
14:27
Speaker 1: trying to save him, the doctors had taken Tim's wedding
14:30
Speaker 1: ring off. Deb asked if she could keep it, and
14:34
Speaker 1: then she was confronted with more agony.
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Speaker 2: And then they asked me to say goodbye to Sierra,
14:41
Speaker 2: me my baby girl that we called raw Rah. And
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Speaker 2: I got told her and say goodbye, and she didn't
14:50
Speaker 2: look hurt or burned or anything. She just looked like
14:55
Speaker 2: she was sleeping. Raba was a real big daddy's girl,
15:00
Speaker 2: and she loved her daddy so much. And I looked
15:05
Speaker 2: at the wedding ring in my hand as Kim's, and
15:09
Speaker 2: I decided to put that on her so this could
15:12
Speaker 2: be buried with it.
15:23
Speaker 1: Sierra and JJ had both died of smoke inhalation. Sophia
15:27
Speaker 1: was still hanging on for dear life, and Tim had
15:30
Speaker 1: been transferred to a burn unit in Denver, and Dev's
15:33
Speaker 1: family and friends were starting to arrive at the hospital.
15:37
Speaker 2: They all wanted to help me, but there was no
15:42
Speaker 2: helping me. I was devastated. I was terrified, this panicked,
15:50
Speaker 2: and I didn't want anyone to touch me. I was
15:53
Speaker 2: just so sick of everyone trying to hug me, like,
15:57
Speaker 2: you know, I have to figure this out.
16:00
Speaker 1: By morning, DEB was informed that Sophia had also died.
16:07
Speaker 2: And I put my wedding ring on Sophia's little finger,
16:11
Speaker 2: and I got to say goodbye to Sophia, and then
16:15
Speaker 2: I went right to the hospital up in Denver and
16:20
Speaker 2: was with Tim and my family and we just we
16:23
Speaker 2: sat vigil with Tim.
16:29
Speaker 1: Tim's injuries were serious, but eventually he was able to
16:32
Speaker 1: leave the hospital. With no home to go back to,
16:35
Speaker 1: the two of them lived out of a motel room.
16:38
Speaker 1: Deb's father and stepmother stayed close to help. Tim was
16:43
Speaker 1: still recovering from his injuries, and Doug took charge of
16:46
Speaker 1: his care, tending to his burns and changing his bandages.
16:50
Speaker 3: I was the only one that could take care of
16:52
Speaker 3: the burns without pulkit and getting sick. So anyway, that
16:56
Speaker 3: was my job for the rest of the time we
16:59
Speaker 3: were there.
17:01
Speaker 1: But Doug was also having a hard time. His daughter
17:04
Speaker 1: had lost her children and he had lost his grandchildren.
17:08
Speaker 3: Can I show you a picture of the kids? Have
17:10
Speaker 3: you ever seen one?
17:11
Speaker 2: Show me?
17:15
Speaker 6: I got to reach it up there, I see. And anyway,
17:21
Speaker 6: this was the last picture of them. This was taken
17:24
Speaker 6: just before they all died.
17:26
Speaker 1: When was that Christmas?
17:28
Speaker 3: Just after? Yeah, in March, I guess, but they had
17:32
Speaker 3: little halos on even.
17:41
Speaker 2: I went from just needing to hire someone to fill
17:45
Speaker 2: a shift to losing my whole little family.
18:00
Speaker 1: Deb and Tim had lost their children, their home, and
18:03
Speaker 1: everything they owned, and as they struggled with their grief,
18:07
Speaker 1: their marriage was deteriorating.
18:11
Speaker 2: We weren't doing well at all. Actually, our souls were broken.
18:18
Speaker 2: We weren't He wasn't the same man, I wasn't the
18:22
Speaker 2: same woman. We were fighting constantly in it was horrible.
18:27
Speaker 2: We were in different places with the grieving, you know,
18:31
Speaker 2: like he would want to remember the kids and I
18:33
Speaker 2: would be like in denial, and we just couldn't get
18:37
Speaker 2: on the same page. And we were actually doing more
18:39
Speaker 2: damage to each other than we were helping. None of
18:44
Speaker 2: any of it made any sense. I was not thinking clearly.
18:49
Speaker 2: I literally would buy boxes of wine and put them
18:52
Speaker 2: in my windowsill, and when I'd wake up in the morning,
18:56
Speaker 2: I'd start drinking whites in and I'd drink it all day.
19:01
Speaker 3: She ended up coming home here with us, and she
19:05
Speaker 3: was still basically in trauma. I mean we're talking months
19:09
Speaker 3: after the fire, and you know, me and her were
19:13
Speaker 3: going down to her bedroom till she cried herself asleep.
19:20
Speaker 1: And it was about to get a lot worse because
19:23
Speaker 1: Tim was the sole survivor from inside the house. Fire,
19:26
Speaker 1: police were suspicious. One day, the police called him into
19:30
Speaker 1: the station, saying they needed him to pick up some
19:32
Speaker 1: property from the fire, but Deb says it was a
19:35
Speaker 1: ruse to get her alone.
19:37
Speaker 2: As soon as he left, the doorbell rang and it
19:40
Speaker 2: was Derek Graham and another detective and they were like,
19:45
Speaker 2: you know, oh, we need to talk to you. We
19:47
Speaker 2: think your husband did this. And I remember telling them
19:50
Speaker 2: absolutely not. They didn't know what they were talking about.
19:54
Speaker 2: My husband loved his children more than his own life.
19:59
Speaker 2: They said, well, well, we have evidence. I said, no,
20:01
Speaker 2: you don't, and if you do, it's wrong. And then
20:05
Speaker 2: I asked them to leave, and I thought that would
20:08
Speaker 2: be the end of it, but it wasn't.
20:11
Speaker 1: Detective Graham was also scrutinizing Deb's behavior, particularly at the hospital.
20:18
Speaker 2: And then he put like his notes that I wasn't
20:21
Speaker 2: crying properly or whatever. And I'm thinking, you didn't think
20:25
Speaker 2: I was crying properly. I couldn't even remember to breathe
20:28
Speaker 2: or close my mouth, and you're judging me like that.
20:33
Speaker 1: But the way Detective Graham saw it, these two parents
20:36
Speaker 1: had something to do with the deaths of their children.
20:46
Speaker 1: After a two year investigation, on July twenty first, two
20:49
Speaker 1: thousand and five, the grand jury indicted Tim Nichols for
20:52
Speaker 1: the murders of eleven year old Jj, five year old Sophia,
20:57
Speaker 1: and three year old Sierra. Deb was also indicted that
21:00
Speaker 1: day for minor counts from before the fire, including drug use,
21:05
Speaker 1: but more than two years later, in November two thousand
21:08
Speaker 1: and seven, she too was indicted for the murders of
21:11
Speaker 1: their children. Deb and Tim were tried separately. Tim's trial
21:21
Speaker 1: came first before Deb's trial even began. He was convicted
21:26
Speaker 1: of three counts of first degree murder. Deb's trial started
21:32
Speaker 1: on October fourteenth, two thousand and eight. The prosecutors, Assistant
21:36
Speaker 1: district attorneys Amy Mulaney and David Lindsay, presented the theory
21:41
Speaker 1: that Deb had developed an addiction to methamphetamine and needed
21:44
Speaker 1: money for drug related debts, so she conspired with Tim
21:48
Speaker 1: to burn down their house and family for the insurance money.
21:52
Speaker 1: They said that meth users would do anything to get
21:55
Speaker 1: more meth.
21:58
Speaker 7: And according to the prosecution, that would include killing their
22:01
Speaker 7: three children to get more methamphetamine, and there was very
22:04
Speaker 7: little evidence to support that at all, but that was
22:08
Speaker 7: their theory.
22:09
Speaker 1: This is Kathleen Lord. She's a staff attorney at the
22:12
Speaker 1: Cory Wise Innocence Project at Colorado Law, Kathleen says that
22:17
Speaker 1: while Deb did do drugs occasionally.
22:19
Speaker 7: There's not evidence that she was a meth addict. She
22:24
Speaker 7: was first turned on to meth by one of the
22:28
Speaker 7: state's witnesses as a way to lose weight, and there
22:33
Speaker 7: was a lot of speculation on the prosecution's part.
22:38
Speaker 1: The state had one major problem with its case. Deb
22:42
Speaker 1: wasn't home the night of the fire, so the state
22:44
Speaker 1: argued she had to have an accomplice. They said she
22:47
Speaker 1: planned it with Tim, who had already been convicted.
22:51
Speaker 8: There's something that we're uncomfortable with, and I think that
22:54
Speaker 8: we're uncomfortable with the fact that there was a father
22:57
Speaker 8: at home with his children and he escaped the fire
23:00
Speaker 8: and his children didn't.
23:01
Speaker 1: Anne Marie Moyas is the director of the Corey Wise
23:04
Speaker 1: Innocence Project. She says that right from the beginning, the
23:07
Speaker 1: police focused on Deb and Tamas suspects.
23:11
Speaker 8: There's a real impulse to blame him and to embrace
23:14
Speaker 8: narratives that put him at fault for what happened, and
23:17
Speaker 8: so I think that was the kernel that started all
23:20
Speaker 8: of this, and then the confirmation bias sets in, and
23:25
Speaker 8: then every piece of evidence is seen through this lend
23:28
Speaker 8: of that expectation.
23:32
Speaker 1: Here's how the state's case began.
23:37
Speaker 8: Somewhat early in the investigation, they led an arson dog
23:41
Speaker 8: through the fire scene and the dog was trained to
23:44
Speaker 8: alert to the possible presence of an ignitable liquid, and
23:48
Speaker 8: the dog did alert at multiple locations in the living room,
23:51
Speaker 8: in the stairway at the house. They said, okay, well
23:54
Speaker 8: we found xilenes, and xilenes are a chemical compound in
23:59
Speaker 8: a nightable liquids.
24:01
Speaker 1: Xilens are also commonly detected when furniture and other household
24:06
Speaker 1: items burn in a fire. Yet, the prosecution argued that
24:09
Speaker 1: the presence of xilenes showed that the fire was deliberately
24:13
Speaker 1: set using an ignitable liquid.
24:16
Speaker 8: They had an expert whose name is John Dehan, and
24:21
Speaker 8: he testified that he was able to determine that only
24:25
Speaker 8: a fire set at multiple locations simultaneous in the living
24:29
Speaker 8: room could have grown large enough to engulf the entire room.
24:32
Speaker 8: So it was beyond dispute that the living room did
24:35
Speaker 8: go to flashover, meaning that the entire room was engulfed
24:39
Speaker 8: in flames. But his theory was that only a deliberately
24:43
Speaker 8: set fire could have produced that result.
24:47
Speaker 1: And to further bolster this theory, the state brought in
24:50
Speaker 1: a jailhouse snitch. When Tim was in jail, he was
24:54
Speaker 1: placed next to a notorious informant named Hiram Church.
24:59
Speaker 8: With in a day or two of being in custody.
25:03
Speaker 8: Mister Church claimed to have heard Tim confess to him,
25:07
Speaker 8: and then they were able to use the jailhouse snitch
25:09
Speaker 8: to tie it together because the jail house snitch said
25:12
Speaker 8: that Tim had admitted to him to using an ignitable
25:15
Speaker 8: liquid called goof off to start the fire, and xilenes
25:19
Speaker 8: are a primary ingredient of goof off.
25:22
Speaker 1: The state said that Tim put goof off, a household
25:25
Speaker 1: cleaning product all over the furniture and had the kids
25:28
Speaker 1: sit on it that evening. Then when the fire ignited,
25:31
Speaker 1: the children would already have the flammable substance on them them.
25:36
Speaker 8: And what was critical is that mister Church, the jail
25:39
Speaker 8: house informant, said not only that Tim had confessed, but
25:41
Speaker 8: that he had implicated Deb in the crime.
25:59
Speaker 1: The state also criticized Deb's behavior following her children's deaths.
26:04
Speaker 1: They called in an insurance adjuster to testify that when
26:07
Speaker 1: she showed up at their office. She had on a
26:09
Speaker 1: white track suit with freshly manicured nails, implying that she
26:14
Speaker 1: was dressed inappropriately for a bereft mother. The state relentlessly
26:19
Speaker 1: picked apart her grieving process.
26:22
Speaker 2: I get it because I didn't know how to do
26:24
Speaker 2: it either.
26:26
Speaker 5: I don't know.
26:27
Speaker 2: Things like that come in waves like you just can't
26:30
Speaker 2: you sob uncontrollably, and then you can't think for a
26:34
Speaker 2: sob or do anything for a while, and then it'll
26:38
Speaker 2: hit you and I don't know, it's like a cycle
26:40
Speaker 2: of denial and devastation.
26:44
Speaker 1: They also brought up the fact that deb didn't attend
26:47
Speaker 1: her children's funeral. How come you didn't attend the funeral.
26:54
Speaker 2: I had lost my second son, Spencer, when he was
26:57
Speaker 2: three months old, and I had to have a funeral.
27:02
Speaker 2: It's a little tiny casket and I barely made it
27:07
Speaker 2: through that, and I just I was trying to get
27:14
Speaker 2: ready to go to the funeral, and my body was
27:19
Speaker 2: breaking down and I was shaking so bad. And you know,
27:23
Speaker 2: my daughters loved to me get ready in the morning,
27:26
Speaker 2: and they would be like, you know, mom, we went pretties,
27:29
Speaker 2: and I was trying to get ready for the funeral,
27:32
Speaker 2: but I just had to sit down and give in
27:36
Speaker 2: and surrender. I can't go. I can't do it. I
27:42
Speaker 2: didn't want to go to the funeral and have it
27:45
Speaker 2: be about me breaking down instead of people getting to
27:50
Speaker 2: say goodbye to my beautiful children. So I went and
27:56
Speaker 2: I sat out in the car until after the funeral,
28:01
Speaker 2: and then I went and I thank people for coming.
28:09
Speaker 2: I couldn't. I just I couldn't imagine seeing three, three caskets.
28:15
Speaker 2: It was too much. It was too much.
28:33
Speaker 1: Deb's defense attorneys were Deputy Public Defender Cindy Jones and
28:36
Speaker 1: Jeffrey Schwartz. They called multiple witnesses to refute the prosecution's
28:41
Speaker 1: idea that deb wasn't grieving properly, and as Anne Marie
28:45
Speaker 1: Moyas explains, they also called in the prominent fire expert
28:50
Speaker 1: John Lntini.
28:51
Speaker 8: He disputed all of the prosecution's evidence and their interpretation
28:57
Speaker 8: of the evidence, but at the end of the day,
28:59
Speaker 8: it was his against multiple experts on the prosecution side,
29:04
Speaker 8: and the prosecution did a pretty good job of characterizing
29:09
Speaker 8: Lentini as some sort of hired gun that the defense
29:11
Speaker 8: had paid. It wasn't a fair characterization, but it was
29:15
Speaker 8: a success. They were successful in portraying him that way.
29:19
Speaker 1: Over a month later, on November twenty fourth, two thousand
29:22
Speaker 1: and eight, Deb Nichols was convicted of three counts a
29:25
Speaker 1: first degree murder. She was sentenced to three consecutive life
29:29
Speaker 1: terms in prison. Deb has passed her time in prison
29:36
Speaker 1: trying to come to terms with what has happened in
29:38
Speaker 1: her life.
29:40
Speaker 2: I try to do the things that I know will help,
29:43
Speaker 2: like journaling and singing, and working out, and going to
29:49
Speaker 2: church at Red Rocks God behind bars, and keeping my
29:53
Speaker 2: heart open so that I can feel that pure love
29:56
Speaker 2: with my children, and fighting to clear our aims because
30:02
Speaker 2: we had nothing to do with that fire.
30:09
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty, Kathleen Ann Marie and the Corey Wise
30:12
Speaker 1: Innocence Project joined experienced criminal defense lawyer Janine McCabe in
30:18
Speaker 1: taking on Deb's case.
30:20
Speaker 8: So the main thing that we've done is brought on
30:23
Speaker 8: new leading experts in fire science to explain the changes
30:27
Speaker 8: in fire science that have taken place since the time
30:30
Speaker 8: of trial.
30:31
Speaker 1: And not only that, in the time since the trial happened,
30:34
Speaker 1: the state's expert, John Dehn, has been discredited.
30:38
Speaker 8: He for many years was considered one of the leading
30:42
Speaker 8: experts in fire science in this country. But what we
30:45
Speaker 8: know now is that he acted unethically in other cases,
30:49
Speaker 8: and in fact, the American Association of Forensic Science voted
30:53
Speaker 8: to expel him from membership because of that unethical conduct.
30:58
Speaker 1: Dehn, who passed away in twenty twenty two to continued
31:01
Speaker 1: to stand by his testimony. This is him speaking in
31:04
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen about the case.
31:07
Speaker 9: I've read, examine the data and the findings a number
31:11
Speaker 9: of times over the years, and I still hold my
31:15
Speaker 9: conclusions expressed in the Tim Nichols trial as well as
31:20
Speaker 9: Deborah Nichols, that fire was deliberately started in the living
31:25
Speaker 9: room of the residents.
31:27
Speaker 1: However, the science to Han was touting has also been discredited.
31:32
Speaker 1: The defensive trial expert John Lntini also maintains his trial
31:36
Speaker 1: testimony and emphasizes these changes in science. To this day,
31:41
Speaker 1: he defends Debra's innocence.
31:44
Speaker 10: It's not up to Timothy or Deborah to prove what
31:49
Speaker 10: caused that fire. What we have learned about the behavior
31:52
Speaker 10: of fire since the Nickels fire is that the patterns
31:57
Speaker 10: that we read after a big fire like the are
32:00
Speaker 10: not reliable evidence.
32:03
Speaker 8: We can now say definitively that the samples that were
32:06
Speaker 8: taken from the Nichols living room show that they were
32:09
Speaker 8: just the natural byproduct of the fire, that they did
32:12
Speaker 8: not come from an ignitable liquid. So there's absolutely no
32:16
Speaker 8: evidence anymore that there was an ignitable liquid present at
32:19
Speaker 8: the fire scene, and that new science just exposes the
32:24
Speaker 8: prosecution's case for what it is, which is just a
32:27
Speaker 8: house of cards that just doesn't stand up under any
32:29
Speaker 8: sort of inspection.
32:31
Speaker 1: The jailhouse informant, Hiram Church, has also been discredited.
32:36
Speaker 8: We see that in cases of wrongful convictions that sometimes
32:39
Speaker 8: when these jailhouse informants are used, what we find out
32:42
Speaker 8: about their history is that they miraculously have heard confessions
32:45
Speaker 8: in a number of other high profile murder cases, and
32:48
Speaker 8: that was true of mister Church.
32:51
Speaker 1: The Corey Wise Innocence Project submitted a motion for a
32:54
Speaker 1: new hearing to the courts in October of twenty twenty two.
32:57
Speaker 1: If accepted, there will be an evidentiary hearing where Deb
33:01
Speaker 1: can present this evidence to the court. In the meantime,
33:04
Speaker 1: she tries to keep healthy and stays in touch with
33:06
Speaker 1: the family she has left. Although Deb and Tim are divorced,
33:10
Speaker 1: they've remained friends and write letters to each other in prison.
33:17
Speaker 2: We're both just trying to grieve and heal and get
33:20
Speaker 2: our names cleared and get the truth out and take
33:24
Speaker 2: it day by day. At this point, it's hard to
33:31
Speaker 2: talk about trauma. It's hard to talk about losing my babies.
33:40
Speaker 2: But I was just hoping that people, especially women that
33:45
Speaker 2: get wrongly convicted, can find some type of strength, seet
33:53
Speaker 2: through it, and keep fighting.
33:59
Speaker 1: Deb thinks back to the night of the fire, often
34:01
Speaker 1: remembering her kid's rambunctious energy at bedtime. Now she thinks
34:05
Speaker 1: of that night in a new way.
34:09
Speaker 2: I'm so glad that I got to put him back
34:11
Speaker 2: to bed four or five times, because I didn't realize
34:16
Speaker 2: that would be the last time I got to kiss
34:18
Speaker 2: him good night. And I'm really really grateful I got
34:23
Speaker 2: a bunch as her kisses.
34:24
Speaker 10: In that night.
34:34
Speaker 1: If you want to help Deb and the Corey Wise
34:35
Speaker 1: Innocence Project, go to the links in our bio. Next time,
34:44
Speaker 1: un Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling Ashley Jordan.
34:48
Speaker 2: He was about to say he did it just so
34:51
Speaker 2: I can go home and won't go to jail, and
34:53
Speaker 2: I looked at him and I grabbed his hand and
34:55
Speaker 2: I said, no, you're not you will not lie for
34:59
Speaker 2: these people. That's because we didn't do anything wrong.
35:06
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling. Please
35:09
Speaker 1: support your local innocence organizations and go to the links
35:12
Speaker 1: in our bio to see how you can help. I'd
35:15
Speaker 1: like to thank our executive producers Jason Flamm and Kevin Wurtis,
35:18
Speaker 1: as well as our senior producer, Annie Chelsea, producer Lyla Robinson,
35:22
Speaker 1: and story editor Sonia Paul. The show is edited and
35:25
Speaker 1: mixed by Annie Chelsea, with additional production by Jeff Cliburn
35:29
Speaker 1: and Connor Hall. The music in this production is by
35:32
Speaker 1: three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. The news clips
35:37
Speaker 1: heard in this episode were reported by Laura Martin at KKTV.
35:42
Speaker 1: Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction,
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Speaker 1: on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast, and on Twitter at
35:49
Speaker 1: wrong Conviction, as well as at Lava for Good. On
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Speaker 1: all three platforms, you can also follow me on both
35:55
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35:59
Speaker 1: Freeling is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in
36:02
Speaker 1: association with Signal Company Number one