COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—A mother accused of killing her three children by burning down her home for insurance money was so distraught after the fire that she would lay on a couch and cry for hours, her father testified Friday.
“Trying to believe that you lost all your kids at once, it’s tough,” Douglas Baumgardner, 64, said of his daughter, Deborah Nicholls. He described her as “a loving, caring mom.”
Nicholls is charged with first-degree murder, child abuse and other counts in the March 7, 2003, fire. The blaze killed Jay, 11, Sophia, 5, and Sierra Nicholls, 3.
Prosecutors allege Nicholls and her husband, Timothy Nicholls, set fire to the house and killed the children in hopes the insurance payment would get them out of financial problems caused by drug use.
Deborah Nicholls has said the fire was accidental and was started by candles.
Timothy Nicholls was convicted last year of felony murder and is serving life without parole.
Baumgardner told jurors he helped his daughter fill out claims forms because she was too upset to do it.
“I told her I would take care of the forms and the money and she could take care of herself,” said Baumgardner, who testified for the defense.
Prosecutors painted a different picture. They said Deborah Nicholls doused a couch with a flammable solvent and left for a bar, and that Timothy Nicholls lighted the fire.
Prosecutors said she didn’t attend her children’s funeral and went to two bars that day, singing karaoke at one.
Baumgardner defended his daughter’s decision not attend the funeral, saying that she was “still too distraught.” He said she attended a reception afterward and left early in tears.
When asked by prosecutors, Baumgardner said he didn’t know his daughter went to two bars after the reception. He also said he did not know his daughter had a methamphetamine addiction.
Baumgardner testified that his daughter and her husband did not have life insurance for the children and the funerals were paid for by a church and a community memorial fund that collected a total of $38,000.
With the jury out of the courtroom, Nicholls told El Paso County District Judge Steven Pelican Friday she would not testify in her own defense.
Closing arguments are scheduled Monday. Nicholls could face life in prison if convicted.
