Deborah Nicholls Mother: Nicholls Admitted To Murder

COLORADO SPRINGS – The prosecution called its first witness in the Deborah Nicholls triple murder trial Wednesday afternoon.

Sandra Wilson, Deborah Nicholls’s mother,took the stand following opening arguments. She described the night of March7th, 2003 when theNicholls’s three children died in a fire at their home at 4107 Undimmed Circle.Wilson said she received a phone call from Deborah saying she needed to come to Memorial Hospital. Wilson said when she arrived at the hospital she was met by Deborah in the emergency room parking garage. Wilsontestified that the first thing Deborah said was “I killed all my kids, its my fault, I lit the candle.” Nicholls claims she left a candle burning before leaving the house that night. Prosecutors say fire investigators found no evidence of candles in the charred rubble.

Prosecutors say they will prove Deborah Nicholls and her husband wanted to kill their children for insurance money to pay off drug debts.

Nicholls’s husband, Timothy, was found guilty in 2007 of setting the fire that killed the couple’s three children, 11-year old Jay, 5-year old Sophia and 3-year old Sierra. Deborah Nicholls was not home at the time of the fire.A grand jury indicted Deborah Nicholls on three counts of first degree murder and several other felonies after her husband’s conviction.

Timothy Nicholls is appealing his conviction and will not testify in his wife’s trial. However, jail informant Hiram Church is expected to take the stand. He was a key witness in the prosecution’s case against Timothy Nicholls. Deborah Nicholls could face life in prison without parole if convicted of first degree murder. Her trial is expected to last six weeks.