Girl to Testify Against Mother in Drug Deaths

The daughter of the first person in the nation charged with causing death by tampering with over-the-counter drug capsules is prepared to testify for the prosecution, government lawyers said Monday.

The disclosure was contained in a pretrial brief filed by Assistant U.S. Atty. Joanne Maida as jury selection began in the trial of Stella Nickell, 44, in U.S. District Court.

Nickell is charged with two counts of causing a death by product tampering and three of tampering with a product involved in interstate commerce. Maximum penalties are life in prison on each of the first two charges and 10 years on each of the other three.

Nickell’s husband, Bruce, 52, and Susan Katherine Snow, 40, both of Auburn, Wash., died in June, 1986, after ingesting tainted capsules of Extra-Strength Excedrin. Authorities have not suggested any other links between the victims.

The deaths set off a nationwide tampering scare and prompted Excedrin manufacturer Bristol-Myers to recall its capsuled non-prescription medicine.

That December, Nickell “called her daughter, Cindy Hamilton, and informed her that the FBI had claimed that she had failed” a lie-detector test, Maida’s brief said.

“After learning this from her mother, Cindy Hamilton came forward in January, 1987, with information, previously unknown to the authorities, that Stella Nickell had been planning the death of her husband, Bruce, for several years,” the brief said.