GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.—An 88-year-old sheep rancher long accused of causing the death of his wife’s first husband nearly 40 years ago has finally been cleared.
A Mesa County jury has found Nick Theos of Meeker not liable on all three claims in a wrongful death lawsuit. The ruling ended a lawsuit brought by the son of a Meeker salesman who died in 1969.
Jim Robinson died at age 38 of intoxication from thallium, a poison used by ranchers in the 1950s and ’60s to kill coyotes and rats. Robinson’s son, Matt Robinson, believed that Theos purposely exposed his father to the poison. Seven years after Jim Robinson died, Theos married his widow, Lois Robinson Theos.
When Jim Robinson died, the cause was ruled a sudden, unexplained illness. But questions about the death swirled for decades. Jim Robinson’s body was exhumed in 2001 and the cause of death changed to thallium intoxication.
But no criminal charges were filed. Lawyers for Theos say the salesman could have been exposed to thallium through his job, because Robinson sold the poison to area ranchers.
Lois Robinson Theos died in 2001, a few months after her first husband’s body was exhumed.
Nick Theos briefly served in the state Legislature from 1979 to 1980.
Theos’ lawyer told The Daily Sentinel newspaper that he hopes the jury’s ruling will finally clear Theos of wrongdoing in Robinson’s death.
“A jury of his peers said he didn’t do anything wrong,” Dan Wartell said.
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Information from: The Daily Sentinel,
