Mother’s Trial Opens in Deaths of 4 Girls

On this much both sides agree: Sandi Nieves was a deeply troubled woman whose four daughters died, choking on smoke, after their Saugus house was deliberately set on fire.

But should the mother be held responsible for the girls’ deaths?

The answer is a definitive yes, prosecutors said Monday during opening statements in Nieves’ capital murder trial in San Fernando Superior Court.

“The defendant in this case did the unimaginable, and we will prove that to you,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Beth Silverman. Evidence will show that Nieves acted out of anger against the men in her life when she “murdered her four young daughters,” Silverman said.

Sketching a vastly different portrait, Nieves’ defense attorney called the 36-year-old woman a “lost child” who endured years of physical and emotional abuse but was a loving mother.

“Sandi Nieves grew up in a dysfunctional home,” said Deputy Public Defender Howard Waco. “The district attorney accuses Sandi of starting the fire with the intent of killing her family and herself. . . . She had no such intent.”

At one point, Waco suggested that Nieves’ teenage son, who was also in the house but survived with burns on his fingers, might be the one who set the fire. “You’ll see by the time this trial is over that Sandi was as much a victim as her children,” Waco said.

As her attorney spoke, Nieves hung her head and wept, occasionally audibly. She faces four counts of first-degree murder for the July 1998 deaths of Kristl and Jaqlene Folden, ages 5 and 7, respectively, and Rashel and Nikolet Folden-Nieves, 11 and 12. She also faces charges of attempted murder of her son, David Nieves, and arson causing great bodily injuries. If convicted, she could face the death penalty.

Attorneys for both sides outlined Nieves’ tumultuous life, which included two ex-husbands and a lover who left her.

“The defendant found herself alone, with three failed relationships, five children and no money,” Silverman said. “The defendant wanted to punish the men in her life.”

In the early morning of July 1, 1998, Nieves gathered her children for a slumber party in the kitchen, Silverman said. David Nieves, who was 14 at the time, woke in the middle of the night, his eyes and throat burning from the fumes. He later told investigators that his sisters wanted to leave the house but their mother told them to stay put and breathe into their pillows. The next day, the boy found his sisters lying still “with foam on their mouths,” Silverman said.

Evidence includes a 2-gallon canister containing gasoline, found in Nieves’ bedroom with her fingerprints on it, and gasoline on the carpet, Silverman said.

Hours before the fire, Nieves mailed a letter to ex-husband David Folden, who also was once married to her mother. “Now you don’t have to support us anymore . . . you scum,” Silverman said, reading aloud from the handwritten note. In his opening statement, Waco described Nieves as a loving mother who gave her children piano lessons and as a law-abiding citizen who once had dreams of becoming a police officer. But because of her difficult childhood and bad relationships with men, Waco said, Nieves had an identity crisis and low self-esteem.

He painted a portrait of Nieves’ mother as a “sick parent.” He showed jurors pictures of Nieves’ brother’s corpse after he had died of a heroin overdose in 1991. Nieves’ mother, who was an embalmer, sent her daughter the photos, Waco said.