Witness Claims Ex-Athlete Said He Killed Woman

A key witness against a former high school star wrestler testified Friday that the defendant admitted to killing one of the three people in Clairemont he is charged with murdering.

Before a packed courtroom, Rodney Nicholson, 24, who said he also goes by the name of Rodney Almond, testified that Christopher Box, 20, told him he had stabbed April Gilhousen, 20, during a struggle in her home.

Also slain Aug. 9 were Gilhousen’s 3-year-old son, Bryan, and Kevin Chandler, 29, who lived with Gilhousen. The bodies of the boy and Chandler were found in separate locations on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, and the woman’s body was found in her house.

The preliminary hearing for Box is likely to conclude next week. The audience was filled with his friends from Clairemont High School, where he was a star wrestler and football player.

Reminded of Oath

Nicholson, who is in jail on drug charges, came into the packed courtroom of San Diego Municipal Judge Fred Link and initially told Deputy Dist. Atty. Lorraine Rooney he could not see Box in the courtroom when asked to identify him.

“Mr. Nicholson, you’re under oath,” reminded Rooney.

Rooney requested a private conference with Nicholson, and 10 minutes later, Nicholson was escorted back into court and identified Box, saying he was “a good friend of mine.”

Nicholson said he was arriving at the house where the victims were killed when he encountered Box outside with a baseball bat. He said Box had “a mean look on his face” and hit him twice on the arm with the bat, causing severe pain.

He said Box ran after him but he eluded him and hid in a store. Nicholson said he later hitched a ride to the house of a friend, Dennis Burns.

Some time later, Nicholson said, he, Burns and another man returned to the house because Nicholson wanted to get his car back, which he had parked in the alley.

While they were in the car, Nicholson said, he saw Box leave the house with another man. Box’s co-defendant, Manuel Flores Jr., 17, has a murder case pending in Juvenile Court.

Apologized for Hitting

Nicholson said Box approached him in the car and apologized for hitting him.

“Sorry, home boy. I didn’t know it was you. I thought it was somebody else,” Nicholson quoted Box as saying.

Box told him he thought Nicholson was someone named Charles and that it involved “a deal that went bad.” Rooney asked Nicholson if Box meant a drug deal, and the witness said he did not know.

Box gave Nicholson a $100 bill to pay for an X-ray, said Nicholson, and then accompanied him to a store, he said. It was then that Box admitted to stabbing April Gilhousen, Nicholson said.

“He said they got into an argument. He said she got stabbed,” Nicholson said.

“Mr. Box told you he had killed April?” Rooney asked.

“Yes, to the best of my knowledge,” replied the witness.

On cross-examination by Charles Adair, Box’s lawyer, Nicholson added: “He mentioned something about April coming at him with a knife, and a struggle, and her being stabbed.”

The prosecutor asked Nicholson if he had ever told police that Box remarked that he had killed everyone in the house, but the witness said he couldn’t remember saying that.

The father of the slain boy, Michael Ross, testified that he once saw Box at the house where the occupants lived, but he didn’t know who he was at the time.

Box remains in County Jail in lieu of $2 million bail.