#587 Maggie Freleng with Deborah Nicholls

**Jason Flom** (0:04)
This is Jason Flom, and welcome back to Wrongful Conviction. In 2023, Maggie Freleng shared the devastating story of Deborah Nicholls, a Colorado Springs mother who lost all three of her children in a tragic 2003 house fire and who was later convicted of having caused their deaths. Deb's conviction rested on discredited arson science. Testimony from a fire expert who was later discredited for unethical conduct and even for judgments about whether Deb was grieving her children, quote unquote, properly.
Well, now we have a major breakthrough to report. Because in April of this year, a judge found that prosecutors had committed a Brady violation of Deb's case, meaning that evidence favorable to her defense had been withheld.
And on August 1st, Deb's conviction was finally vacated. One of the prosecutors from Deb's case, now a district attorney in a nearby county in Colorado, was also recently removed along with his entire office from an unrelated murder case after a judge found a pattern of having failed to turn over evidence that was favorable to the defense. Now, while Deb remains in custody for now, a status conference is set for today. And her attorneys are hopeful, as are we, that she'll soon be released on bond. So after 23 long miserable years, Deb's fight isn't over. But this is a huge step towards justice and hopefully towards some long overdue peace and healing for Deb and her family.

**Lauren Bright Pacheco** (1:59)
The evening of March 6, 2003, was a typical Thursday for the Nicholls family. That night, Deborah Nicholls put her three energetic kids to bed.
After her husband Tim got home, she left the house to interview an employee for their karaoke business. When she returned home, her world had been turned upside down.

**Deborah Nicholls** (2:20)
That night, I went from just needing to hire someone to fill a shift to losing my whole little family.

**Lauren Bright Pacheco** (2:34)
It was a mother's worst nightmare. When it was over, all three of Deb's children had died in a terrible accident.
She was so stricken with grief that she couldn't bring herself to attend their funeral.

**Deborah Nicholls** (2:51)
I was trying to get ready to go to the funeral and my body was breaking down and I was shaking so bad. I just had to sit down and give in and surrender. I said, I can't go. I can't do it.
I couldn't imagine seeing three caskets. It was too much. It was too much.
My name is Deb Nicholls. I'm currently serving three life sentences at Denver Women's Correctional Facility.

**Lauren Bright Pacheco** (3:32)
From Lava for Good, this is Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freleng. Today, Deb Nicholls.
Deborah Nicholls was born May 4, 1967, in Dearborn, Michigan. She grew up in a large, blended family.

**Deborah Nicholls** (3:58)
Having seven brothers and sisters was a blast. We had a great childhood.
Northern Michigan has beautiful weather, like the perfect for season. So we as children took full rain with all of it, and did a lot of skating and skiing and swimming, and we're just going down to the end of the street, to the bay, and playing in the water all day, all summer long. We had so much fun.

**Lauren Bright Pacheco** (4:32)
So can you tell listeners about Deborah? What's she like? What was she like growing up?

**Douglas Baumgardner** (4:38)
Well, as you probably gather talking to her, she's a pretty strong girl.

**Lauren Bright Pacheco** (4:43)
This is Deb's father, Doug Baumgardner.

**Douglas Baumgardner** (4:46)
Pretty strong-willed and has no problems doing things her way and trying to attain what she's headed for. She was always that way all of her life.

**Lauren Bright Pacheco** (5:02)
Her family later moved to Colorado, but for college, Deb carved her own path and moved out to California. After studying at San Diego for a year, Deb left the West Coast and joined her family in Colorado.
When Deb was 24, she gave birth to her first child, a son. They called him JJ.

**Deborah Nicholls** (5:22)
JJ's nickname was Peanut, and he was just absolutely beautiful. He was my little buddy, my little man, and we did everything together.

**Lauren Bright Pacheco** (5:38)
Deb went on to have a second son, Spencer. But tragically, when he was three months old, Spencer passed away from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, also known as SIDS.
Despite her loss, Deb continued to try and be the best mom she could to JJ. By 1993, she was living in a suburb of Colorado Springs, working two jobs and going to school. One night, she went out to a local bar to let loose and indulge in one of her passions, singing karaoke. What is your karaoke song? Do you have a go-to?