Children killed in fire did not die quickly, coroner testifies

After enduring a morning of grisly autopsy pictures of three badly burned children, jurors in the Deborah Nicholls murder trial heard from a fire expert the Nicholls hired because they though their insurance company was taking too long to pay the claim.

Deborah Nicholls did not have to view the pictures of her three dead children - Jay, 11, Sophia, 5 and Sierra, 3 - because she asked to leave the courtroom to go to her holding cell, just as she did when some of those pictures were shown during opening statements Oct. 22.

Prosecutors rested their first-degree murder case against Nicholls late Tuesday and the defense begins Wednesday.

El Paso County Coroner Dr. Robert Bux said the children were alive long enough to inhale massive amounts of hot soot and carbon dioxide, which is what killed them. Two of the children died at the scene of the March 7, 2003, fire at 4107 Undimmed Circle. Sophia died 16 hours later at Memorial Hospital from massive brain damage caused by a lack of oxygen, Bux said.

"There was overwhelming damage to their lungs," Bux testified.

Jay had "thermal" burns over more than 65 percent of his body, which means the flames caused those burns and happened while he was still alive, Bux testified.

Any place on the children's bodies that was not covered by pajamas, or sweat pants in Jay's case, was blackened with soot. The girls also had "radiant" burns, caused by the heat of the fire but not the flames.

Each had toxic levels of carbon dioxide, Bux said.

Jurors were shown Nicholls' writings recovered by Colorado Springs police investigators from her computer. In them, she talks about using an "uncontrolled substance" to lose weight.

Nicholls wrote she was "stuck in a vicious cycle" in late 2002.

Prosecutors allege the Nicholls started the deadly fire to collect insurance money to get out of massive debt caused by methamphetamine addiction.

The last prosecution witness was Jeff Berino, a private fire investigator from Professional Investigative Engineers in Denver. Timothy and Deborah Nicholls hired him in May 2003 because they felt the Colorado Springs Fire Department and American Family Insurance investigators were taking too long and no claims had been paid, he said.

When he met Deborah Nicholls at the house, before even saying "hi" she asked Berino: "When can we expect to see our money?"
Berino said he "could not explain scientifically" Tim Nicholls' version of the fire. And when Berino noticed a wire that was a code violation - but not the cause of the fire - Tim Nicholls was "elated and thrilled."

Deborah Nicholls later incorrectly told insurance investigators Berino ruled an electrical problem caused the fire, according to a videotaped recording of the October 2003 interview played for jurors Monday.

Berino said the way Deborah Nicholls talked about "the" children instead of "her" children was a "red flag."
"If someone has something to do with the fire, they distance themselves and refer to objects - houses, cars, in this case children - in that tense," Berino said.

Though the Nicholls refused to let Berino finish his investigation by looking at police and fire reports - or to even tape record their statements - prosecutors later gave him all that evidence. He later ruled the fire was an arson caused by multiple ignition points likely from a flammable liquid, Berino testified.

Prosecutors allege the couple doused the living room furniture with a highly flammable cleaning solution called Goof-Off.

Defense attorneys are expected to call a fire expert that will testify that in his opinion the cause of the fire was accidental. Jurors in Timothy Nicholls trial did not buy that same expert's opinion and convicted him of murder last year. He is serving three life sentences.

The case could go to jurors by the end of the week.