Colorado Springs – Timothy Nicholls intentionally lit eight to 11 fires in his home while his children were present, a jury concluded in finding him guilty Tuesday of three counts of first-degree felony murder.
Nicholls, 36, hoped to collect insurance money when he started the fires on March 7, 2003.
He shared the home with his wife, Deborah, who was away when the fires started, their two children, Sierra, 3, and Sophia, 5, and Deborah’s son, Jay, 11. The children died in the fire. Witnesses said traces of Goof Off, a highly flammable solvent, were found in the home. A can of the product was found in the bushes outside the home.
Nicholls showed no emotion when the verdicts on 19 criminal counts were read. Afterward, emotion filled the courtroom, with prosecutors hugging Sandra Wilson, the maternal grandmother who relentlessly pursued justice in the case.
“I think it is the second-saddest day of my life – of course, the first being when I lost the kids,” Wilson said.
She spoke by phone nearly every day to Colorado Springs police Detective Derek Graham. The day after District Attorney John Newsome was inaugurated, there was a letter on his desk from Wilson asking him to look into their deaths.
“I adored them. I loved them. They were the joy of my life. I could not walk away,” she said.
Wilson said at a news conference after the verdicts were read that she suspected her son-in-law and daughter were drinking too much. She said she did not suspect they were using methamphetamine.
Her daughter, Deborah Nicholls, has not been charged in connection with the deaths. She faces an Aug. 13 trial on charges of attempted theft of insurance money, possession and use of a controlled substance, and intimidating a witness. She refused to testify at her estranged husband’s trial, invoking the Fifth Amendment.
Shortly after Newsome was elected, he asked a grand jury to look into the case. Nicholls was indicted in July 2005.
After a seven-week trial, the jury deliberated nearly four days before finding Nicholls guilty. It was unable to reach a verdict on charges of premeditated first-degree murder and of conspiracy to commit murder.
But jurors found him guilty of child abuse, arson, arson with intent to defraud, criminal attempt to commit theft, possession of cocaine and methamphetamine, and unlawful use of methamphetamine. He will be formally sentenced May 17.
Nicholls’ attorney, Dennis Hartley, said Nicholls was “disappointed I’m sure. … You’re convicted of killing your own children, and you’ve maintained your own innocence from the beginning.”
Hartley said there were “a ton” of appellate issues that needed to be looked into.
Staff writer Erin Emery can be reached at 719-522-1360 or eemery@denverpost.com.
