‘We’ve always known she was innocent,’ Deborah Nicholls’ father ecstatic to hear her murder convictions overturned

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - Tonight, Deborah Nicholls sits in the El Paso County Jail awaiting her Aug. 20 status conference, a slightly different situation than the one she had lived in for the previous decade-plus.

On Aug. 1, her three life sentences were overturned. A judge ruled that the prosecution suppressed scientific evidence during Nicholls' trial, which is a Brady violation.

READ MORE: Deborah Nicholls’ case vacated 23 years after three children killed in house fire

KRDO13 spoke with people who were on the scene of the fire as it happened 23 years ago. One, a former firefighter, says he believes the original verdicts should still stand.

But Nicholls' father thinks differently.

"We've always known she was innocent, that she would never have done anything like that. She wasn't even home," Doug Baumgardner, Nicholls' 82-year-old father, said. "We were ecstatic today when we got all the news that, you know, it's finally been overturned."

Baumgardner hopes with this court decision, he'll be able to hug his daughter again, outside a state prison or jail.

"It's time that she gets out and we're able to celebrate again as a family," He said from his Michigan home.

However, Baumgardner says he's not excited about the prospect of another jury trial 20 years later.

"None of us want to have to go through that again," He said.

More than thoughts of freedom or a new trial for his daughter, the news has reopened the wounds left by the deaths of Jay, Sophia, and Sierra.

"It's a shame that their lives were cut short. It was a terrible tragedy," Baumgardner said. A tragedy that he says Tim Nicholls wasn't responsible for either.

"He [Tim] should be released the day after Deborah, as far as I'm concerned," Baumgardner said.

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