#331 Maggie Freleng with Deborah Nicholls

Wrongful Conviction

Lava for Good Podcasts

True Crime

4.6 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2023

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

One evening in March, 2003, a fire broke out in Deborah Nicholls' Colorado Springs, CO home, killing her three children. Her husband suffered significant burns, but escaped. After a 2-year investigation, it was determined that the fire was not accidental, and that Deborah and her husband started it for the insurance money. The trial was a battle of the experts – one presenting the junk science of arson evidence, one asserting that the science was outdated. The former triumphed, and Deborah was sent to prison for the murder of her children. Maggie speaks to Deborah Nicholls, Deborah's father, Douglas Baumgardner, and Deborah's attorneys, Anne-Marie Moyes, Director of the Korey Wise Innocence Project and Kathleen Lord, Staff Attorney at the Korey Wise Innocence Project.

To learn more and get involved, visit:

https://lavaforgood.com/podcast/149-wrongful-conviction-junk-science-arson-evidence/

https://www.colorado.edu/outreach/korey-wise-innocence-project/

https://giving.cu.edu/fund/korey-wise-innocence-project-fund

District Attorney John Newsome:

https://www.denverpost.com/2009/01/15/former-springs-da-cited-for-official-misconduct-for-misusing-funds

https://gazette.com/news/newsome-i-sincerely-apologize/article_4886ac0d-fb7c-5c21-b7a2-15ea6c12ef4e.html

Assistant District Attorney Amy Mullaney:

https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/report-da-drove-county-vehicle-after-drinking-8-beers/73-343049675

Attorney Representing Tim Nicholls:

https://gazette.com/news/respected-colorado-springs-attorney-dennis-hartley-disbarred-over-misdeeds/article_c137be7a-c37e-11e9-aace-b7dbb10e4465.html

May 07, 2010 20/20 episode Burned, The Amanda Gutweiler story:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0X8Bk8oBNG8

Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freleng is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	When my daughter ran off to hop trains, I was terrified I'd never see her again, so I followed her into the train yard.
0:10.0	This is what it sounds like inside the box-top.
0:13.0	And into the city of the rails, there I found a surprising world, so brutal and beautiful that it changed me.
0:20.0	But the rails do that to everyone.
0:23.0	There is another world out there, and if you want to play with the devil, you're gonna find them there in the rail yard.
0:28.0	I'm Denelle Morton, come with me to find out what waits for us and the city of the rails.
0:33.0	Listen to City of the Rails, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.
0:38.0	Or cityoftherails.com.
0:41.0	In 1967, Joseph Stalin's only daughter, flees Russia for her new home, America.
0:47.0	As long as everybody, I am very happy to be here.
0:52.0	That story alone is worthy of a podcast, but Spedlana's Spedlana is about what comes next, and it's the craziest story I've ever heard.
1:01.0	It has KGB agents, a Frank Lloyd Wright commune, weird sex stuff, three Olga's two Spedlana's, and one neurotic gay playwright.
1:09.0	That's me.
1:10.0	Listen to Spedlana's Spedlana on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:16.0	What's up y'all? I'm Guillermo Diaz, and I played hook on Scandal.
1:20.0	And I'm Katie Loes, aka Quinn Perkins, and we're the hosts of Unpacking the Toolbox, the Scandal Rewatch podcast, where we're talking about all the best moments of the show.
1:30.0	With guests like Tony Goldwyn, who always amped up the fire as President Fitzgerald Grant.
1:35.0	Grab your Scandal swag, your du belay, and join us on Unpacking the Toolbox every Thursday.
1:41.0	Listen to Unpacking the Toolbox on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
1:53.0	The evening of March 6, 2003 was a typical Thursday for the Nichols family.
1:59.0	That night, Deborah Nichols put her three energetic kids to bed.
2:03.0	After her husband Tim got home, she left the house to interview an employee for their karaoke business.
	...

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