The Nation : Conviction in Drug-Tampering Deaths

A federal district court jury in Seattle convicted a woman of killing her husband and another woman by lacing their Extra-Strength Excedrin with cyanide in the nation’s first death-by-product-tampering trial. The seven-woman, five-man jury deliberated almost five days before returning the verdict against Stella Nickell. Nickell, 44, of suburban Auburn, was convicted on each count she faced, two of causing death by tampering with a product involved in interstate commerce and three of tampering. The charges stemmed from the June, 1986, deaths of her husband, Bruce Nickell, 52, and of Sue Katherine Snow, 40, also of Auburn. Both died after ingesting cyanide-laced Extra-Strength Excedrin capsules. Snow was an innocent stranger caught in Nickell’s scheme to make her husband’s death appear random, the prosecution said.