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00:04A fatal fall from a remote mountain trail.
00:08911, where is your emergency?
00:10I need help.
00:11My girlfriend's off the cliff.
00:13A young woman's life erased in an instant.
00:17When I found out, I had practically collapsed on the floor right there.
00:20Was it just a tragic accident?
00:23Steve's account of what had happened was that Ronda had slipped and fallen
00:27because she was pretending to be Supergirl.
00:30Or could the prosecution...
00:31One, two, three...
00:35Prove it was murder.
00:37If she ran off the edge, she would never have landed that far from the cliff.
01:03Everybody needs to have someone in their life that believes in them.
01:08And that was Ronda.
01:12Ronda Castro was born in 1985 in Texas, and she was known for being an attractive woman.
01:19She had a really outgoing, bubbly personality.
01:21Friends and family described Ronda as just so easygoing, great to be around.
01:27She had this really infectious personality, and she was really fiercely loyal about the people that she loved.
01:33Ronda was a very loving, caring, non-judgmental person.
01:38Really kind of goofy sense of humor like mine.
01:41Very outspoken.
01:42Super loyal to her friends and family.
01:44You know, it's cliche to say it, but it's true.
01:46She's my best friend.
01:47You know, we were close.
01:50She's the type of person who lights up a room or energy when she comes into a room.
01:5720-year-old Ronda moved to the Portland, Oregon area with her mom, Julia.
02:02The two had a really close relationship.
02:05Julia was looking to move house, and she saw an ad online for a man advertising a spare room in
02:12his three-bedroom house.
02:14And that's how she found Steve.
02:17Not long after Julia moved in, she introduced her daughter to Steve.
02:22She thought that the pair would get on really well, and before long, they were an item.
02:26Steve, he had the ability to be very charming.
02:30He's well-spoken, physically fit, and he shared a lot of similar interests.
02:36I think that there was genuine attraction there.
02:39It seems that Steve had all of the attributes that Ronda was looking for, and he was willing to really
02:45splash the cash on her and impress her.
02:48On the night that she had first went on a big date with Steve, she came home, and she had
02:53this little dainty little tennis bracelet on.
02:56You could tell it was real.
02:57It was nice.
02:58I mean, not like a million-dollar bracelet, but certainly, you know, within the, you know, low four-figure range.
03:04Ronda then moved in with Steve, and eventually the two moved out and got their own apartment.
03:09Three years later, Ronda was pregnant, and in 2008, they had a baby daughter.
03:15She doted on her daughter.
03:18It's hard to put into words.
03:19She was meant to be a mom.
03:22Her daughter was her world.
03:25Our childhood was not the greatest, and so she wanted for her daughter to have all those things that we
03:30didn't have.
03:31You know, the structure, the stability, the parent to dote on them and show them the way and how to
03:37make it in the world.
03:38This is what she'd been waiting for, and she really grew into that role as a mother.
03:44Before starting a family with Steve, Ronda was a rising star on the Portland modeling scene.
03:50Ronda was a beautiful woman, really naturally attractive.
03:53She actually did get involved with, like, a modeling agency, and she had a portfolio and headshots and all that
03:59stuff.
04:00And she had a really successful career modeling for brands like Nike.
04:04After giving birth, Ronda was really keen to get back to her modeling jobs.
04:08She had a potential job lined up as a Maria Sharapova lookalike,
04:11so she really wanted to get back into shape.
04:14Steve was telling his friends that Ronda was keen to lose some of her baby weight,
04:18to bounce back into her job, and so they'd talked about going hiking.
04:22But Ronda believed there might be another reason for their hiking trip into the mountains.
04:27I remember Ronda telling us about it.
04:30He's going to propose to me.
04:31And they had literally looked at rings.
04:34And so she was legitimately excited about this hike.
04:39On March 16, 2009, Ronda and Steve set off on a hike on the Eagle Creek Trail in Oregon's Columbia
04:49River Gorge.
04:51It's an area that local investigator, Darty Robinson, who's lived in Oregon for more than 20 years, knows well.
04:59The Columbia River Gorge is a beautiful, historic, and natural, scenic area.
05:05It's known for rugged terrain, gorgeous views, sudden weather changes, and it's quite desired by hikers, climbers,
05:15anyone who loves to go out and recreate.
05:17The Eagle Creek Trail quickly goes from being no elevation up to a couple hundred feet at places above the
05:26creek.
05:27Eagle Creek Trail is known for having really narrow pathways.
05:31Some of them you can only go one at a time, and there's some sheer drops of up to 150
05:35feet.
05:38It's considered to be advanced, because, you know, the drop-offs, and there's places where there's, you know, not guardrails,
05:46but just rope.
05:47It's beautiful, but also very dangerous, especially if you're not familiar with it or not extra careful and know what
05:52you're doing.
05:54The weather started out pleasant that day, but then things took a bit of a turn.
05:58It really started to pour down with rain, and the conditions became quite treacherous.
06:04As the bad weather closed in on the couple's remote hike, at 6.09 p.m., a frantic call was
06:11made.
06:129-1-1, where is your emergency?
06:14Well, I need help. I'm at Eagle Creek.
06:17Okay, and what's going on there?
06:19My girlfriend's off the cliff.
06:21Okay, so she fell off of the trail down a cliff, and then you went down the cliff and brought
06:26her back up onto the trail?
06:27No, she's dead.
06:30He said that he tried to call 9-1-1, but there was no service, so then he'd have to
06:35climb back up again to make the call.
06:37Now, Steve, and I know that this is a difficult question for you, but what makes you think that she
06:42was definitely deceased?
06:44I don't know for sure. I stayed with her for about an hour and a half, and I gave her
06:48mouth-to-mouth.
06:49Okay, was she breathing when you left her?
06:52No.
06:53Do you know if she had a pulse?
06:56No, I don't think so.
06:58Steve, we have an officer that's on his way, okay?
07:00All right.
07:02Around 20 minutes after Steve made the 9-1-1 call, first responders and police arrived.
07:08They found Rhonda's body, and they pronounced her dead at the scene.
07:14On the same evening, Rhonda's family started to become concerned.
07:18Her mom, Julia, was babysitting their daughter, and she hadn't heard from Rhonda for hours.
07:23I thought it was weird that she wasn't answering the phone, so I just figured, oh, they're out of service.
07:27But as afternoon turned into early evening, I started getting really concerned.
07:32This is not typical.
07:33Like, she wouldn't want to leave their daughter that long.
07:36Family members were calling.
07:37They were texting Rhonda, and they really started to get alarmed as the hours went on.
07:43Around 8 p.m., there was a knock at the door.
07:46A local chaplain had been sent by the fire service, and he told Julia that her daughter was gone.
07:54Meanwhile, Rhonda's brother, Jeff, was still awaiting news on his sister's whereabouts.
07:59Once it got past dark, I was starting to feel kind of panicky.
08:02And so I call my mom again, and my mom's boyfriend answers.
08:08And I was like, did you guys get a hold of her?
08:11And he's like, yep, it's done.
08:13And I was like, what do you mean, what's done?
08:14He's like, done, dude, she's dead.
08:18Like, that's literally how he told me.
08:20No exaggeration.
08:22And I just collapsed.
08:25I didn't pass out, but I just dropped the phone and was like, oh, my God.
08:28You know what I mean?
08:28I was stunned.
08:30I didn't know what to say or do or whatever.
08:33Steve also phoned his family with the tragic news about Rhonda.
08:38Steve Nichols called his own father to break the news about what had happened.
08:43He was so overwhelmed with emotion and floods of tears that his dad could barely understand what he was saying.
08:49He was hysterical at this point, saying, Rhonda's dead.
08:52She's fallen.
08:53She slipped on ice and fell off the edge.
08:57Reeling from the devastating news about his sister, Jeff headed over to his and Rhonda's mother's house.
09:03Everybody was there, and she had Rhonda's daughter.
09:07And I was trying to focus on being strategic and staying level-headed because everyone was super upset.
09:16They were just distraught.
09:17I mean, they were in disbelief.
09:20And so the sheriff's department came and was sort of telling us a little bit about what had happened.
09:26Yeah, that was how I found out that night.
09:36In March 2009, after Rhonda Casto had fallen 150 feet to her death, while hiking with her partner Steve Nichols,
09:46Steve talked to police about what had happened.
09:49Steve's account was that Rhonda had slipped and fallen because she was running around pretending to be Supergirl with a
09:56towel around her neck.
09:57But other aspects of Steve's story began to arouse suspicion.
10:02His calm demeanor, the way he was answering questions about what happened on the day and in the build-up
10:08just weren't quite adding up.
10:10After Rhonda had fallen, it took Steve an hour and a half to make the call to 911.
10:16Steve said that it took him over an hour to scramble down to where Rhonda's body was, and then he
10:23began mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on her.
10:26He claimed also that he laid down on top of her and took a nap.
10:32Can this be explained by him being in a state of shock?
10:36In a state of shock, yes, you're confused trying to work out what's happening, but you would also be overwhelmed
10:42by the need to get emergency help as quickly as possible.
10:47The idea that you might just be stuck in a state of absolute inertia for an hour and a half
10:55when a loved one is desperately needing assistance makes no sense.
11:00Another detail that jumped out about this 911 call was that Steve seemed more concerned about his own well-being,
11:07that he had deemed Rhonda was already dead and he was more concerned about the authorities coming to help him.
11:15Police arriving on the scene were struck by how Steve seemed to be relatively calm and more concerned with needing
11:23a blanket for himself than what had happened to Rhonda.
11:27Here we have someone whose focus is utterly egocentric, even in this moment of Rhonda's death.
11:38He seems to have no sense that he needs even to pretend to care about other people, let alone genuinely
11:47showing any empathy for the situation.
11:50There's an absence of awareness of anyone other than himself.
11:57In emergency situations, yes, there's a self-protective drive that comes to the surface, but more powerful is the drive
12:06to protect those that you love.
12:09So this bias he's showing towards his own comfort rather than what has happened to Rhonda is remarkable.
12:17Another detail that jumped out about this hike that day were the conditions.
12:21It was horrendous weather. That time of year is known in the gorge for being windy, rainy. There was some
12:29ice. Snow can come up suddenly.
12:32Why would this couple go up on a really advanced hike in such treacherous, dangerous conditions?
12:40Hood River County Police also had questions over the positioning of Rhonda's body.
12:46When the police arrived, Steve had claimed that Rhonda's body was right next to the river, but when they found
12:52her, she was around 100 feet away.
12:54And it was really hard for them to work out where exactly she had fallen.
12:59He claimed that he gave her CPR.
13:02Mr. Nichols couldn't have given her CPR because she was found face down.
13:06And in no realm, in no world do you ever give someone CPR face down.
13:11Also, there were no marks or tracks found near Rhonda's body, and this suggested that her body hadn't been moved.
13:19Detectives questioned friends and family about Rhonda and Steve, only to discover that their relationship had been rocky from the
13:27very start.
13:28When her and Steve first went out on official date date with, you know, him and his friends and all
13:33that, he ignored her the whole time.
13:35And his friends picked up on it, and he ended up making her cry that night.
13:41He just was very condescending.
13:44It was the constant undercurrent of manipulation and being cold and distant and flirting with other women, making her cry
13:52on dates, ignoring her, being mean to her.
13:55And things only got worse once their daughter was born.
13:58He basically destroyed her identity internally.
14:02He broke her down.
14:06I'm aware of maybe two or three times where it got physical.
14:10She actually did send me photos of bruises on her back from him tackling her at their condo.
14:15And I remember confronting Steve over it, over the phone, and him basically laughing it away and saying, oh, well,
14:21you know how she gets.
14:23Steve's version of how the relationship was was very different.
14:26He said there was no discontent between the two of them, and actually, he had been planning to propose to
14:31Rhonda that day.
14:32And when the police questioned him, well, where's the ring, he suggested maybe it had fallen in the river.
14:39But according to Jeff, even Rhonda had her doubts about Steve's intentions on the hike.
14:45The hike was planned at least a week or two in advance.
14:48It stuck in my mind that Rhonda had said something to me and my grandma.
14:53She said it sort of irreverently, jokingly, but she's like, well, you know, Steve's either going to kill me or
14:59he's going to propose to me.
15:03After hearing conflicting reports about the state of Rhonda and Steve's relationship, detectives hoped Rhonda's autopsy report would provide more
15:12information.
15:13Two days after her death, Rhonda's autopsy results were quite surprising.
15:19Rhonda's pelvis was shattered.
15:21This suggests that she had, in fact, landed on her feet, not headfirst.
15:26These autopsy results seemed to support Steve's version of events that Rhonda had fallen or she'd jumped.
15:34The injuries didn't show any signs of an altercation between the two beforehand and no signs of foul play.
15:41The autopsy also found traces of marijuana and some prescription medication in Rhonda's body.
15:47And although Steve had suggested she was acting high, there wasn't enough traces of the drugs in her system to
15:54suggest that she'd been out of control.
15:57The coroner classified Rhonda's cause of death as multiple blunt force injuries, which were consistent with a fall from over
16:06150 feet.
16:08The manner of death was listed as undetermined.
16:13Police suspected foul play, but without witnesses or any physical evidence, Rhonda's case stalled.
16:20And Steve moved away with their young daughter to live with his family in Bend, Oregon.
16:26When Steve Nichols moved on with his life, Rhonda's mother, Julia, was still convinced that there had been a reason
16:33why her daughter died.
16:35And she was convinced that that was because of money.
16:37Julia claimed that Steve had lost a lot of money in the 2008 financial crash and that he was trying
16:44to claim some of these funds back by claiming life insurance money from Rhonda's death.
16:50A few months before Rhonda died, Steve had taken out life insurance policies for him and Rhonda worth $1 million
16:58each.
17:00Steve claimed that Rhonda was the one pressuring him to take out this life insurance, but Rhonda's family disputed this.
17:07They say it was Steve who put the pressure on.
17:09I mean, Rhonda wouldn't even have known all the nitty gritty behind terms and, you know, double indemnity, accidental death
17:16clauses and all that.
17:17So absolutely, Steve was behind the policy.
17:19Just 10 days after Rhonda's death, Steve put in a claim for the life insurance money.
17:26The detectives found this suspicious, so they asked for the money to be withheld while the investigation was unfolding.
17:32But due to the lack of physical evidence, the case ground to a halt.
17:38Over the next two years, Rhonda's mother grew frustrated at the lack of progress.
17:42And in a bid to stop Steve from claiming the life insurance money, opened a civil case.
17:48In 2011, Julia contacted a law firm and she managed to get a really tenacious investigator known as Dardy Robinson
17:56to take on the case.
17:58The primary impetus for me to get involved in this was that there was a baby of about a year
18:03and a half old
18:04who was purportedly in the custody of the man who had murdered her mother.
18:11That deserved a look.
18:13When Dardy began to investigate Steve's past, she was astounded.
18:18Nichols had been previously married.
18:20I learned that he had given up custody of his prior daughter.
18:24I learned that Mr. Nichols had attempted to throw his prior wife off the balcony of a high-rise in
18:31China.
18:33Investigators also discovered he had sexually assaulted one of Rhonda's relatives, who was a minor,
18:39and then tried to convince her that she could become his baby's mother.
18:43If this were true, this would be the kind of behavior you would expect from somebody with a psychopathic personality,
18:49somebody who is prepared to do anything to achieve their own objectives.
18:57Daugherty felt convinced that Rhonda's death was no accident and that the civil case she was building against Steve
19:04would in fact be strong enough to be tried as a criminal case in court.
19:09In 2012, three years after Rhonda's death, Daugherty took her findings to the district attorney's office.
19:17In 25 years of prosecuting, I had never been brought a case from a civil law firm.
19:22Daugherty and her attorney that she was working with at the time presented us with additional materials
19:28that he thought would warrant a second look, and I agreed.
19:33Getting the case reviewed by Carrie was extremely important because while we couldn't do anything
19:40for Rhonda, there was this vulnerable young child who deserved protection,
19:46and she was in the custody of the potential murderer of her mother.
19:51The circumstances around Mr. Nichols, I believe, causing the death of Rhonda Castro,
19:59assaulted my conscience when I would think about him profiting off of the million-dollar insurance policy.
20:08I believe that his daughter needed protection from him and that he was a dangerous person,
20:16and that if I didn't try to at least find some justice that would hopefully lead to the protection
20:27of Rhonda Castro's daughter, I wouldn't really be able to live with myself.
20:32I at least needed to try.
20:39After Rhonda Castro had fallen to her death in 2009,
20:44the investigation into whether or not she was pushed by her partner, Steve, had gone cold.
20:51Four years later, the district attorney's office was still looking into the case.
20:56Meanwhile, Steve had moved with his daughter to China.
21:00Steve soon established a new life in China.
21:03He got a job teaching English to businessmen out there.
21:06He met a new partner, and they soon got engaged.
21:10Back in Oregon, deputy district attorney Carrie Rasmussen and her team
21:15were slowly building a case against Steve Nichols.
21:18For a prosecutor, it's always difficult to pick up a cold case.
21:22Part of it is you need to take a new look at the old evidence and then decide where follow
21:28-up work needs to happen.
21:30When you have a small county district attorney's office and small law enforcement offices,
21:36the burden is even greater.
21:38And so all of us had to put some of our own time in to figure out what leads needed
21:45to be followed,
21:46new interviews conducted.
21:48So it's really rebuilding the whole case from scratch.
21:53You're going to have to persuade, you know, a jury of 12 people to find beyond a reasonable doubt
21:59that a homicide happened.
22:01And that's very difficult in a circumstantial evidence case with no witnesses.
22:06So what you're really looking at are multiple circumstances that add up to a finding that he was responsible.
22:15Collecting testimony that supported Steve's history of questionable behavior, known as bad acts,
22:21was critical to the success of the case.
22:23Detectives needed to contact various partners and an ex-wife and the family of Ms. Casto
22:33about what they experienced at the hands of Mr. Nichols.
22:36They had important information to give us to consider whether or not we could provide enough evidence to the grand
22:45jury to consider.
22:46But as the new case began to gain momentum, Cary and Daugherty came up against a surprising setback.
22:54What materialized is that the lead detective on Rhonda's case had intentionally wiped his hard drive.
23:02This resulted in the loss of key evidence like crime scene photos and autopsy photos.
23:08The reasons the hard drive was wiped have always remained unclear.
23:13But what was very clear was that it was going to have a huge impact on Rhonda's case.
23:19The destruction of evidence by the first detective from 2009 was a devastating blow.
23:27That's almost impossible to surmount for a prosecutor.
23:30But I was willing to try.
23:32They took the hard drive and they were able to resurrect some, not all, but some of the evidence,
23:39most importantly pictures of the crime scene.
23:43And we believed that given evidence of motive and intent
23:48and the evidence that we were able to resurrect from the deleted hard drive,
23:54that we had enough to let a grand jury consider it.
23:58Cary presented the case to a grand jury who would decide if there was enough evidence to indict Steve
24:04for the murder of Rhonda Castro.
24:08Proceedings were held in secret to avoid alerting Steve to the investigation
24:12and risk him never returning to the U.S.
24:15On April 18, 2014, the jury made their decision and Steve Nichols was indicted.
24:23It was a total shock when I heard he was indicted.
24:25I never thought that the case would be revived.
24:27I had already given up on any kind of hope for that to happen.
24:31All the prosecutors had to do was wait for Steve Nichols to return from China so he could be arrested.
24:39Towards the end of February 2015, Mr. Nichols flew back to the United States, to California,
24:45in order to renew his child's passport.
24:49Steve and the child landed at San Francisco Airport.
24:52He was immediately arrested the minute they saw his passport.
24:56It triggered the secret indictment.
24:59The child was taken into protective custody and he was taken to the San Mateo County Jail,
25:05charged with first-degree murder.
25:07Steve Nichols was arrested on February 2, 2015, almost six years after Rhonda fell to her death in 2009.
25:18He was interviewed by detectives and detained at Northern Oregon Regional Correctional Facility,
25:25awaiting a date to face charges in court.
25:29When I heard that Steve had been arrested, I was stunned and I was grateful that their daughter was away
25:38from him.
25:39It was a big mix of emotions.
25:41I felt Steve facing trial for murder was justified.
25:44I was cautiously optimistic but really kind of skeptical that he would be punished for it.
25:49In May 2015, three months after Steve's arrest, he appeared in court where he pleaded not guilty to the charge
25:58of murder.
25:59Bail was set at $2 million and he was detained to await trial.
26:06Meanwhile, prosecutors continued to build on their theory that he had pushed Rhonda to her death.
26:12But the lack of physical evidence meant it wasn't going to be easy.
26:17I was preparing to deliver a murder case based on circumstantial evidence.
26:21They're very tough.
26:23It is not a slam dunk case.
26:25There was no direct witness to him causing her death.
26:30There's no physical evidence of him placing his hands on her, for instance.
26:35There's nobody hearing an argument.
26:37So there are all sorts of circumstances around that show motive, intent, maybe even planning.
26:47The key elements were the circumstances surrounding the death itself, statements that Mr. Nichols had made at the scene, which
26:57were concerning, statements that he made after the scene, his behaviors towards others that pointed to his motivation in the
27:07case.
27:08Circumstances around the $1 million insurance policy, taken out two months earlier on his girlfriend's life.
27:17Circumstances involving his attempted assault, if not homicide, allegedly, in Shanghai.
27:25And when you put the whole picture together, that points to only one person who caused her death.
27:37To strengthen their case, Carrie and the investigators decided to reenact the fatal fall at Eagle Creek in the hope
27:46of providing further evidence that Rhonda was pushed.
27:49We conducted the reenactment in March of 2015.
27:54A reenactment with experts is something that I routinely do in my cases to see in real world terms what
28:03happens, what is going to happen, what can be seen, where something will land.
28:07And in this case, you had somebody who's claiming that there was just a fall.
28:13I got two dummies, Laverne and Shirley, that were the exact same weight as Rhonda was at the time, and
28:20dressed them in exactly the same clothing so that we would have the same types of drag.
28:26Okay, ready?
28:27Ready?
28:28One, two, three.
28:35We did several test runs, replicating the weather, the season, the foliage, the time of day, the trail conditions, the
28:45force that it required to launch a 140-pound person so that they would land in that area.
28:53Are we going to get photos of the body down here, close-ups?
28:56Yes.
28:56We had the Hood River County Sheriff, we had Sheriff's deputies search and rescue, we had FBI people there filming,
29:06you know, documenting this whole thing.
29:08We'll help scan her up, and then we're going to give her a deed.
29:17The overall findings were if she jumped or if she ran off the edge, she would never have landed that
29:24far from the cliff, number one.
29:26Number two, it required a forceful shove to get her out that far.
29:32Number three, when she was out that far, her leg broke open in the same way that Rhonda's leg broke
29:39open.
29:40It was just heartbreaking, because by the time we were done, you knew what happened.
29:50Whether it qualified as appropriate demonstrative or scientific evidence, that was going to be yet another battle about whether we
29:57could even assert that to a jury.
30:04In August 2015, Steve Nichols appeared in court again for a bail hearing.
30:10Every defendant has the right to contest their bail, and the judge reviewed the state of the evidence as it
30:20was at that point in time.
30:22The biggest dispute is always going to be a circumstantial evidence case and the weight of those circumstances, or how
30:30much weight should be given to those circumstances.
30:34Steve Nichols' defense called into question the scientific rigor of the prosecution's crash test dummy experiment, claiming the tests were
30:44inaccurate.
30:45The evidence in the state's case was weaker, and the judge, weighing everything in its totality, agreed to lower his
30:54bail to an amount that he could post.
30:57The judge lowered Steve Nichols' bail to $250,000, and after a 10% payment of $25,000 made by
31:07his attorney, Steve was released from prison with an ankle monitor.
31:13Steve continued to await his day in court, while pre-trial disputes rumbled on.
31:20Over the course of the next few months, they went back and forth, arguing between the defense and the judge.
31:25And the prosecution about what evidence should be included in this trial.
31:30Carrie wanted evidence about Steve's past to be included in the trial.
31:34These are called prior bad acts, and they help paint a picture of someone's character.
31:39These prior bad acts included an allegation that he tried to throw his ex-wife off a balcony in China,
31:45which was allegedly witnessed by a nanny.
31:48I hoped to present evidence of the nanny in Shanghai.
31:51We had a transcript of her interview by police in China.
31:56I had hoped to bring her here from China to explain to the jury what she saw and experienced.
32:04His first wife was willing to come forward and testify to that event.
32:09These prior bad acts, they also included allegations of domestic abuse and sexual assault against a minor.
32:17I believe Steve Nichols exhibited behavior towards other domestic partners that was critical to understanding why he was responsible for
32:27the death of Ronda Castro.
32:29In February 2016, seven years since Ronda's death, the judge ruled which bad acts could be admitted at trial.
32:38After a prior bad acts hearing, the judge decided that it would be too prejudicial for a jury to hear
32:47about the incident in Shanghai.
32:49That was a huge blow in the case, so a jury would never hear about his first wife, so I
32:57lost all of that evidence of intent towards domestic partners, his resorting to a plan of violence that involved shoving
33:07off of a high ledge.
33:09So that severely weakened the case.
33:12But another key ruling was about to make a big impact on the case regarding Steve's three-hour interview by
33:20San Mateo police following his arrest in 2015.
33:25Those transcripts record all of his inconsistent statements, all of his first one story, then another story.
33:33He says, no, we didn't fight, and then he later says, we fought.
33:37The fact that he says, no, I didn't have my cell phone, oh, but you sent a text from the
33:41trail.
33:42It wasn't just what he said, but it was his demeanor towards the victim, his, I'll dare say, dismissiveness, his
33:49lack of empathy, his attitude towards the victim, a lack of care, a lack of emotion.
33:56When you have a witness who's made multiple different stories, that should come before the jury.
34:03The interview as a whole was important for a jury to see his demeanor towards the event and towards the
34:10victim herself.
34:13After a long legal battle, after an appeal to the Oregon Supreme Court, the prosecution lost the ability to use
34:20evidence from Steve's police interview.
34:23The judge determined that the rules weren't followed and said basically that the state couldn't use any of that interview.
34:33At this point, I was pretty concerned about getting any sort of a conviction given the losses in court of
34:41various critical pieces of evidence.
34:43And the state's case against Steve was about to be struck another blow.
34:50The first person who talked to Mr. Nichols at Eagle Creek, that detective was himself indicted for sex abuse crimes.
35:00I had one detective destroying evidence, and then the jury was going to hear, likely, that the first detective on
35:09the scene interviewing Mr. Nichols was now he himself charged with felony sex abuse.
35:15And so things just didn't get better for the state's case.
35:20I think it was a difficult case at the outset.
35:22It became much more difficult with rulings that went against the state, eliminated evidence that I could use.
35:32There is a cliche of death by a thousand cuts, and the criminal case suffered quite a few of those
35:41cuts.
35:43With challenges to the state's case mounting, Carrie and her team faced an uphill battle to secure a murder conviction
35:51against Nichols.
35:57After a number of significant pre-trial setbacks in the state's case against Steve Nichols for the murder of Rhonda
36:04Castro,
36:05Carrie and her team knew their chances of getting a murder conviction were growing increasingly slim.
36:11In early 2017, two years since Steve's arrest, they reluctantly decided to negotiate with Steve's defense team to see if
36:20they could reach a settlement.
36:22In all of the settlement conferences I've ever engaged in, no one is happy.
36:27The prosecution is not happy with the limited justice that they obtain.
36:33The defense is not happy because they want a not guilty verdict.
36:38After a settlement conference that was mediated by a judge in the spring of 2017, we came to a resolution
36:46of the case.
36:47Steve pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide and coercion and was sentenced to 19 months plus three years on probation.
36:58Criminally negligent homicide means Steve was guilty of causing Rhonda's death, in this case, taking her on that dangerous hike
37:06in dangerous conditions and failing to protect her safety.
37:10Coercion indicates that he may have illegally pressured or coerced Rhonda and may or may not have tricked her into
37:20going on that fatal hike that day.
37:22While there was plenty of suspicion and circumstantial evidence, the state failed to reach the high burden of proof needed
37:30for murder in this case.
37:31Steve also pleaded guilty to sex abuse in the third degree for sleeping with Rhonda's underage relation.
37:39He was then placed on a sex offenders register.
37:43Following his sentencing, Steve received credit for the 19 months he'd already spent behind bars.
37:51With no time left to serve, he was released.
37:55One of my great disappointments is that Mr. Nichols did not receive additional prison time.
38:02But some justice is better than no justice.
38:06And so the energy that I put into the case, while it wasn't the end result that I, at the
38:13outset, was hoping for,
38:15I'm very gratified that we got some justice for Rhonda Casto and her family.
38:20My family's reaction to the sentencing was anger and frustration.
38:26You know, and just a sense of helplessness and almost like being re-traumatized all over again, honestly.
38:32I was angry and I felt offended and I felt like it was just another slap in the face to
38:37the whole family and Rhonda's memory.
38:39And I just felt like the whole thing was foul.
38:43And not because he didn't get punished, but because it was being framed as an accident.
38:51In March 2018, a judge terminated Steve's custody over his daughter.
38:57She has since been adopted by a loving family.
39:00Her mother's insurance money remains in a trust to provide for her future.
39:05So when the adoption was finalized for their daughter, I was there the day they had the court hearing.
39:11You know, and the full foster family was there and it was celebratory and all that.
39:15I'm coming up the sidewalk and I'm at the corner of the courthouse.
39:19And who do I see standing at the entrance, maybe 50 feet away from me?
39:24Steve.
39:26There he is.
39:27I could charge at him and, you know, I mean, it would have been over for both of us.
39:32You know, we're both going to jail, prison, hospital, whatever.
39:34But I didn't do anything.
39:35I didn't even speak to him.
39:36But we made out contact and, you know, it still was surreal to me even just being able to see
39:45him, much less him walking free.
39:47The only bright spot is that her daughter is safe and, you know, has been with decent people.
39:55This case has eaten 15 years of my life.
40:00That's how long I've been involved with this.
40:03Rhonda didn't get justice.
40:04What we were trying to do ultimately was to protect her child, her legacy.
40:13This has been a mission.
40:15A lot of blood, sweat and tears into trying to see that this young girl had a life.
40:24We can't give her back her mom, but I hope that she goes on to have a good life.
40:32The victim's daughter is now in a safe home and is growing up with a much different family than she
40:40would have.
40:41That's important to me.
40:42So that alone makes it worth it.
40:45Do I think that Rhonda got perfect justice?
40:48Absolutely not.
40:50I think she got the justice she would have wanted for her daughter.
40:56That her daughter was not raised by the man responsible for her death.
41:00And also that it should only be her daughter that benefits from the insurance money due to her death.
41:08Not anybody else.
41:10And I'm hopeful that her loved ones saw that that result was important.
41:16Doherty and Carrie Rasmussen deserve a ton of credit.
41:21They're the ones that blocked Steve from getting his hands on the money and got the grand jury hearing and
41:28him indicted and all that.
41:29So, yes, I am grateful to them for sure.
41:33They really put a lot of effort into all this and really wanted to see justice for Rhonda and her
41:39daughter, even though things didn't turn out ideally.
41:44After Steve was sentenced, he continued to do lots and lots of TV appearances, sit down interviews, and his story
41:52just continued to change.
41:53The TV appearances suggest a lack of any kind of remorse at all or even understanding of the suffering of
42:05Rhonda, of her family, of his daughter.
42:08It illustrates somebody who is utterly egocentric, somebody who really sees things purely from his own perspective, who is prepared
42:18to turn any circumstances to his own advantage.
42:21Even a criminal conviction, he's using as a platform to become a celebrity.
42:26It's like he's living his own big adventure.
42:30And what happened to Rhonda is a footnote in his big life story.
42:41Today, 16 years on from Rhonda's tragic death, Jeff's memories of his sister still shine bright.
42:48It's hard to put into words what a phenomenal individual that she was and what an impact it's had on
42:54her being gone.
42:55The last time I spoke to Rhonda, she was at my house with her daughter, being silly, goofy humor, and
43:01playing with the kids.
43:04Rhonda was a great person.
43:05We all loved her, and she really was glue in our family.
43:09What's important going forward right now is that people know the truth that Steve Nichols is a dangerous person,
43:16and that Rhonda's daughter knows the full truth about what happened.
43:21But I feel almost more importantly to know how much Rhonda loved her and was dedicated to her.
43:28Rhonda loved her with everything she had.
43:32It was her life.
43:33It was her anchor.
43:34It was her newfound purpose in life.
43:39Ultimately, that's probably the most valuable thing that I could do to honor Rhonda's memory is to be as active
43:44in her daughter's life as I can.
43:47I am by no means a religious person, but you know when you see something glimmer for a second, or
43:52like a light bounce off something or whatever, or like you see a shiny object,
43:56and just for that split second you see that little sort of sharp edge of light or glimmer or whatever.
44:01And I like to tell myself sometimes that that's where she's at.
44:04She's just right there for a second.
44:07Sometimes I let myself go there and be sad about it, but I also feel like, you know, she's with
44:12me.
44:13And so part of how I deal with it is I just try to honor Rhonda's memory.
44:26We wrote to Stephen Nichols outlining the allegations and evidence discussed in this program and provided him with an opportunity
44:33to respond.
44:35Mr. Nichols did not respond.
44:37He said to the end.
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