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00:00A
00:05fatal fall from a remote mountain trail.
00:08911, where is your emergency?
00:10I need help. My 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.
00:21Was it just a tragic accident?
00:23Steve's account of what had happened was that Rhonda had slipped and fallen
00:27because she was pretending to be Supergirl.
00:30Or could the prosecution...
00:32One, two, three...
00:35Prove it was murder.
00:37If she ran off the edge, she would never have landed that far from the cliff.
00:57Everybody needs to have someone in their life that believes in them.
01:08And that was Rhonda.
01:11Rhonda Castor was born in 1985 in Texas,
01:16and she was known for being an attractive woman.
01:19She had a really outgoing, bubbly personality.
01:22Friends and family described Rhonda as just so easygoing, great to be around.
01:27She had this really infectious personality,
01:29and she was really fiercely loyal about the people that she loved.
01:33Rhonda was a very loving, caring, nonjudgmental 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. You know, we were close.
01:49She's the type of person who lights up a room or energy when she comes into her room.
01:5420-year-old Rhonda 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
02:10advertising his spare room in his three-bedroom house.
02:13And 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,
02:24and 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 Rhonda was looking for,
02:44and he was willing to really splash the cash on her and impress her.
02:48On the night that she had first went on a big date with Steve,
02:51she came home and she had this little dainty little tennis bracelet on.
02:56You could tell it was real. It was nice.
02:58I mean, not like a million-dollar bracelet, but certainly, you know,
03:01within the, you know, low four-figure range.
03:04Rhonda then moved in with Steve, and eventually the two moved out
03:07and got their own apartment.
03:09Three years later, Rhonda was pregnant, and in 2008, they had a baby daughter.
03:14She doted on her daughter. It's hard to put into words.
03:19She was meant to be a mom. Her daughter was her world.
03:24Our childhood was not the greatest,
03:27and so she wanted for her daughter to have all those things that we didn't have.
03:31You know, the structure, the stability, the parent to dote on them
03:35and show them the way and how to make it in the world.
03:38This is what she'd been waiting for,
03:40and she really grew into that role as a mother.
03:43Before starting a family with Steve,
03:46Rhonda was a rising star on the Portland modeling scene.
03:49Rhonda was a beautiful woman, really naturally attractive.
03:53She actually did get involved with, like, a modeling agency,
03:56and she had a portfolio and headshots and all that stuff.
03:59And she had a really successful career modeling for brands like Nike.
04:03After giving birth, Rhonda was really keen to get back to her modeling jobs.
04:07She 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 Rhonda 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 Rhonda believed there might be another reason for their hiking trip into the mountains.
04:27I remember Rhonda telling us about it.
04:30He's going to propose to me.
04:32And they had literally looked at rings.
04:34And so she was legitimately excited about this hike.
04:38On March 16, 2009, Rhonda and Steve set off on a hike on the Eagle Creek Trail
04:47in Oregon's Columbia River Gorge.
04:52It's an area that local investigator Darty Robinson,
04:55who'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,
05:11and it's quite desired by hikers, climbers, anyone 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 creek.
05:26Eagle 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 feet.
05:38It's considered to be advanced because, you know, the drop-offs,
05:42and there's places where there's, you know, not guardrails but just rope.
05:47It's beautiful but also very dangerous, especially if you're not familiar with it
05:50or not extra careful and know what you're doing.
05:53The 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,
06:08at 6.09 p.m., a frantic call was made.
06:129-1-1, where is your emergency?
06:14Hello, I need help. I'm at Eagle Creek.
06:17OK, and what's going on there?
06:19My girlfriend saw off the cliff.
06:21OK, so she fell off of the trail down a cliff,
06:24and then you went down the cliff and brought her back up onto the trail?
06:27No, she's dead.
06:29He said that he tried to call 9-1-1, but there was no service,
06:34so then he'd have to climb back up again to make the call.
06:37Now, Steve, I know that this is a difficult question for you,
06:40but what makes you think that she was definitely deceased?
06:43I don't know for sure.
06:45I stayed with her for about an hour and a half,
06:47and I gave her mouth-to-mouth, and...
06:49OK, was she breathing when you left her?
06:52No.
06:53Do you know if she had a pulse?
06:55Uh, no, I don't think so.
06:57Steve, we have an officer that's on his way, OK?
07:00All right.
07:02Around 20 minutes after Steve made the 9-1-1 call,
07:05first 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.
07:17Her mom, Julia, was babysitting their daughter,
07:20and she hadn't heard from Rhonda for hours.
07:23I thought it was weird that she wasn't answering the phone,
07:25so I just figured, oh, they're out of service.
07:27But as afternoon turned into early evening,
07:30I 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.
07:38They were texting Rhonda,
07:39and they really started to get alarmed as the hours went on.
07:42Around 8 p.m., there was a knock at the door.
07:45A local chaplain had been sent by the fire service,
07:49and he told Julia that her daughter was gone.
07:54Meanwhile, Rhonda's brother Jeff was still awaiting news
07:57on 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,
08:04and 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.
08:12And I was like, what do you mean, what's done?
08:14He's like, done, dude, she's dead.
08:15Like, that's literally how he told me.
08:19No exaggeration.
08:20No exaggeration.
08:21And I just collapsed.
08:25You know, I didn't pass out, but I just dropped the phone
08:27and was like, oh, my God.
08:28You know what I mean?
08:29I 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
08:46that his dad could barely understand what he was saying.
08:49He was hysterical at this point, saying, Rhonda's dead.
08:53She's fallen.
08:54She slipped on ice and fell off the edge.
08:57Reeling from the devastating news about his sister,
09:00Jeff headed over to his and Rhonda's mother's house.
09:03Everybody was there, and she had Rhonda's daughter.
09:08And I was trying to focus on being strategic
09:13and staying level-headed because everyone was super upset.
09:16They were just distraught.
09:17I mean, they were in disbelief.
09:19And so the sheriff's department came
09:22and was sort of telling us a little bit about what had happened.
09:26Yeah, that was how I found out that night.
09:33In March 2009, after Rhonda Castro had fallen 150 feet to her death,
09:43while 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
09:53because she was running around pretending to be Supergirl
09:56with a towel around her neck.
09:58But other aspects of Steve's story began to arouse suspicion.
10:02His calm demeanor, the way he was answering questions
10:05about 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
10:14to make the call to 911.
10:16Steve said that it took him over an hour
10:19to scramble down to where Rhonda's body was,
10:22and then he began mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on her.
10:25He claimed also that he laid down on top of her and took a nap.
10:30Can this be explained by him being in a state of shock?
10:35In a state of shock, yes, you're confused,
10:38trying to work out what's happening,
10:40but you would also be overwhelmed by the need to get emergency help
10:45as quickly as possible.
10:47The idea that you might just be stuck in a state of absolute inertia
10:54for an hour and a half when a loved one
10:56is desperately needing assistance makes no sense.
11:00Another detail that jumped out about this 911 call
11:03was that Steve seemed more concerned about his own well-being,
11:07that he had deemed Rhonda was already dead
11:09and he was more concerned about the authorities coming to help him.
11:15Police arriving on the scene were struck
11:18by how Steve seemed to be relatively calm
11:21and more concerned with needing a blanket for himself
11:24than what had happened to Rhonda.
11:27Here we have someone whose focus is utterly egocentric,
11:33even in this moment of Rhonda's death.
11:37He seems to have no sense that he needs even to pretend
11:44to care about other people,
11:46let alone genuinely showing any empathy for the situation.
11:50There's an absence of awareness of anyone other than himself.
11:56In emergency situations,
11:59yes, there's a self-protective drive that comes to the surface,
12:03but more powerful is the drive to protect those that you love.
12:09So this bias he's showing towards his own comfort
12:13rather than what has happened to Rhonda is remarkable.
12:17Another detail that jumped out about this hike that day
12:20were the conditions.
12:21It was horrendous weather.
12:23That time of year is known in the gorge for being windy, rainy.
12:28There was some ice. Snow can come up suddenly.
12:32Why would this couple go up on a really advanced hike
12:35in such treacherous, dangerous conditions?
12:39Hood River County police also had questions
12:43over the positioning of Rhonda's body.
12:45When the police arrived,
12:47Steve had claimed that Rhonda's body was right next to the river,
12:50but when they found her, she was around 100 feet away.
12:54And it was really hard for them to work out
12:57where exactly she had fallen.
12:59He claimed that he gave her CPR.
13:02Mr. Nichols couldn't have given her CPR
13:04because she was found face down.
13:06And in no realm, in no world,
13:08do you ever give someone CPR face down.
13:11Also, there were no marks or tracks found near Rhonda's body,
13:14and this suggested that her body hadn't been moved.
13:17Detectives questioned friends and family
13:21about Rhonda and Steve,
13:23only to discover that their relationship
13:25had been rocky from the very start.
13:28When her and Steve first went out
13:30on official date date with, you know,
13:32him and his friends and all that,
13:34he ignored her the whole time.
13:35And his friends picked up on it,
13:38and he ended up making her cry that night.
13:41He just was very condescending.
13:44It was the constant undercurrent of manipulation
13:48and being cold and distant
13:50and flirting with other women,
13:51making her cry on dates,
13:53ignoring 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.
14:09She actually did send me photos of bruises on her back
14:12from him tackling her at their condo.
14:15And I remember confronting Steve over it,
14:17over the phone,
14:18and him basically laughing it away and saying,
14:20oh, well, you know how she gets.
14:22Steve's version of how the relationship was
14:24was very different.
14:25He said there was no discontent between the two of them,
14:28and actually he had been planning to propose to Rhonda that day.
14:32And when the police questioned him,
14:34well, where's the ring?
14:36He suggested maybe it had fallen in the river.
14:39But according to Jeff,
14:41even 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
14:51and my grandma.
14:52She said it sort of irreverently, jokingly,
14:55but she's like, well, you know,
14:56Steve's either gonna kill me or he's gonna propose to me.
15:03After hearing conflicting reports
15:05about the state of Rhonda and Steve's relationship,
15:08detectives hoped Rhonda's autopsy report
15:11would provide more information.
15:13Two days after her death,
15:15Rhonda's autopsy results were quite surprising.
15:18Rhonda's pelvis was shattered.
15:21This suggests that she had in fact landed on her feet,
15:25not head first.
15:26These autopsy results seemed to support Steve's version
15:30of events that Rhonda had fallen or she jumped.
15:34The injuries didn't show any signs of an altercation
15:37between the two beforehand and no signs of foul play.
15:41The autopsy also found traces of marijuana
15:44and some prescription medication in Rhonda's body.
15:47And although Steve had suggested she was acting high,
15:50there wasn't enough traces of the drugs in her system
15:53to suggest that she'd been out of control.
15:55The coroner classified Rhonda's cause of death as multiple blunt force injuries,
16:04which were consistent with a fall from over 150 feet.
16:07The manner of death was listed as undetermined.
16:11Police suspected foul play, but without witnesses or any physical evidence,
16:19Rhonda's case stalled.
16:21And Steve moved away with their young daughter
16:23to live with his family in Bend, Oregon.
16:26When Steve Nichols moved on with his life,
16:29Rhonda's mother, Julia, was still convinced
16:32that there had been a reason why her daughter died
16:35and she was convinced that that was because of money.
16:38Julia claimed that Steve had lost a lot of money
16:41in the 2008 financial crash
16:43and that he was trying to claim some of these funds back
16:46by claiming life insurance money from Rhonda's death.
16:49A few months before Rhonda died, Steve had taken out life insurance policies
16:55for him and Rhonda worth $1 million each.
17:00Steve claimed that Rhonda was the one pressuring him
17:03to 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
17:13and, you know, double indemnity, accidental death clauses and all that.
17:17So, absolutely, Steve was behind the policy.
17:20Just ten days after Rhonda's death,
17:23Steve put in a claim for the life insurance money.
17:26The detectives found this suspicious,
17:28so they asked for the money to be withheld
17:30while the investigation was unfolding.
17:33But due to the lack of physical evidence,
17:35the case ground to a halt.
17:38Over the next two years, Rhonda's mother grew frustrated
17:41at the lack of progress.
17:43And in a bid to stop Steve from claiming the life insurance money,
17:46opened a civil case.
17:49In 2011, Julia contacted a law firm
17:52and she managed to get a really tenacious investigator
17:55known as Dardy Robinson to take on the case.
17:58The primary impetus for me to get involved in this
18:01was that there was a baby of about a year and 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
18:29off the balcony of a high-rise in China.
18:33Investigators also discovered he had sexually assaulted
18:36one 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 behaviour
18:46you would expect from somebody with a psychopathic personality,
18:49somebody who is prepared to do anything to achieve their own objectives.
18:56Doherty felt convinced that Rhonda's death was no accident
19:01and 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,
19:13Doherty 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.
19:21Doherty and her attorney that she was working with
19:25at the time presented us with additional materials
19:28that he thought would warrant a second look, and I agreed.
19:34Getting the case reviewed by Carrie was extremely important
19:38because while we couldn't do anything for Rhonda,
19:41there 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,
20:00assaulted my conscience when I would think about him profiting off of the million-dollar insurance policy.
20:09I believe that his daughter needed protection from him,
20:13and that he was a dangerous person,
20:16and that if I didn't try to at least find some justice
20:24that would hopefully lead to the protection of Rhonda Castro's daughter,
20:30I wouldn't really be able to live with myself.
20:32I at least needed to try.
20:37After Rhonda Castro had fallen to her death in 2009,
20:45the 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
21:14were 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
21:26and then decide where follow-up work needs to happen.
21:30When you have a small county district attorney's office
21:34and small law enforcement offices, the burden is even greater.
21:38And so all of us had to put some of our own time in
21:43to figure out what leads needed to 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
21:57to find beyond a reasonable doubt that a homicide happened.
22:01And that's very difficult in a circumstantial evidence case
22:04with no witnesses.
22:06So what you're really looking at are multiple circumstances
22:09that add up to a finding that he was responsible.
22:15Collecting testimony that supported Steve's history
22:18of questionable behavior, known as bad acts,
22:21was critical to the success of the case.
22:24Detectives needed to contact various partners and an ex-wife
22:30and the family of Ms. Casto about what they experienced
22:35at the hands of Mr. Nichols.
22:37They had important information to give us to consider
22:42whether or not we could provide enough evidence
22:45to the grand jury to consider.
22:47But as the new case began to gain momentum,
22:50Kerry and Daugherty came up against a surprising setback.
22:54What materialized is that the lead detective on Rhonda's case
22:59had intentionally wiped his hard drive.
23:02This resulted in the loss of key evidence
23:05like crime scene photos and autopsy photos.
23:08The reasons the hard drive was wiped
23:11have always remained unclear.
23:13But what was very clear
23:15was that it was going to have a huge impact on Rhonda's case.
23:19The destruction of evidence
23:21by the first detective from 2009
23:25was 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
23:35and they were able to resurrect some, not all,
23:37but some of the evidence,
23:40most importantly pictures of the crime scene.
23:44And we believed that given evidence of motive and intent
23:49and the evidence that we were able to resurrect
23:52from the deleted hard drive,
23:54that we had enough to let a grand jury consider it.
23:58Kerry presented the case to a grand jury
24:01who would decide if there was enough evidence
24:03to indict Steve for the murder of Rhonda Castro.
24:06Proceedings were held in secret
24:09to 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
24:20and 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
24:35to return from China so he could be arrested.
24:39Towards the end of February 2015,
24:41Mr. Nichols flew back to the United States, to California,
24:45in order to renew his child's passport.
24:48Steve and the child landed at San Francisco Airport.
24:53He was immediately arrested the minute they saw his passport.
24:57It triggered the secret indictment.
25:00The child was taken into protective custody
25:02and he was taken to the San Mateo County Jail,
25:05charged with first-degree murder.
25:07Steve Nichols was arrested on February 2, 2015,
25:12almost six years after Rhonda fell to her death in 2009.
25:18He was interviewed by detectives
25:21and detained at Northern Oregon Regional Correctional Facility,
25:25awaiting a date to face charges in court.
25:28When I heard that Steve had been arrested,
25:32I was stunned, and I was grateful
25:36that their daughter was away from him.
25:39It was a big mix of emotions.
25:41I felt Steve facing trial for murder was justified.
25:44I was cautiously optimistic,
25:46but really kind of skeptical that he would be punished for it.
25:49In May 2015, three months after Steve's arrest,
25:54he appeared in court where he pleaded not guilty
25:57to the charge of murder.
25:59Bail was set at $2 million,
26:03and he was detained to await trial.
26:06Meanwhile, prosecutors continued to build
26:09on their theory that he had pushed Rhonda to her death.
26:12But the lack of physical evidence
26:14meant it wasn't going to be easy.
26:17I was preparing to deliver a murder case
26:20based on circumstantial evidence.
26:22They're very tough.
26:23It is not a slam-dunk case.
26:25There was no direct witness to him causing her death.
26:31There's no physical evidence of him
26:33placing his hands on her, for instance.
26:36There's nobody hearing an argument.
26:38So there are all sorts of circumstances around
26:41that show motive, intent, maybe even planning.
26:46The key elements were the circumstances surrounding the death itself,
26:53statements that Mr. Nichols had made at the scene,
26:57which were concerning,
26:59statements that he made after the scene,
27:01his behaviors towards others
27:04that pointed to his motivation in the case,
27:07circumstances around the million-dollar insurance policy
27:12taken out two months earlier on his girlfriend's life,
27:16circumstances involving his attempted assault,
27:22if not homicide, allegedly, in Shanghai.
27:25And when you put the whole picture together,
27:28that points to only one person who caused her death.
27:37To strengthen their case,
27:39Carrie and the investigators decided to reenact
27:42the fatal fall at Eagle Creek
27:45in the hope of providing further evidence
27:47that Rhonda was pushed.
27:49We conducted the reenactment in March of 2015.
27:53A reenactment with experts is something
27:56that I routinely do in my cases
27:59to see in real-world terms what happens,
28:03what is going to happen, what can be seen,
28:05where something will land.
28:07And in this case, you had somebody
28:10who's claiming that there was just a fall.
28:13I got two dummies, Laverne and Shirley,
28:15that were the exact same weight as Rhonda was
28:18at the time, and dressed them in exactly the same clothing
28:23so that we would have the same types of drag.
28:26Okay, ready?
28:27Ready?
28:28One, two, three.
28:36We did several test runs replicating the weather,
28:39the season, the foliage, the time of day,
28:43the trail conditions, the force that it required
28:46to launch a 140-pound person
28:50so that they would land in that area.
28:53Are we going to get photos of the body down there,
28:55close-ups?
28:56Yes.
28:57We had the Hood River County Sheriff.
28:59We had Sheriff's deputies search and rescue.
29:02We had FBI people there filming, you know,
29:07documenting this whole thing.
29:09We'll help scan her up,
29:10and then we're going to give her a heed.
29:17Well, the overall findings were if she jumped
29:20or if she ran off the edge,
29:22she would never have landed that far from the cliff,
29:25number one.
29:26Number two, it required a forceful shove
29:29to get her out that far.
29:32Number three, when she was out that far,
29:35her leg broke open in the same way
29:37that Rhonda's leg broke open.
29:40It was just heartbreaking,
29:42because by the time we were done,
29:44you knew what happened.
29:47Whether it qualified as appropriate demonstrative
29:52or scientific evidence,
29:54that was going to be yet another battle
29:56about whether we could even assert that to a jury.
29:59That was another uncertainty in the case.
30:04In August 2015,
30:06Steve Nichols appeared in court again
30:08for a bail hearing.
30:10Every defendant has the right to contest their bail,
30:14and the judge reviewed the state of the evidence
30:20as it was at that point in time.
30:22The biggest dispute is always going to be
30:25a circumstantial evidence case
30:27and the weight of those circumstances
30:30or how much weight should be given
30:31to those circumstances.
30:35Steve Nichols' defense called into question
30:37the scientific rigor of the prosecution's
30:40crash test dummy experiment,
30:42claiming the tests were inaccurate.
30:45The evidence in the state's case was weaker,
30:48and the judge weighing everything in its totality
30:52agreed to lower his bail
30:54to an amount that he could post.
30:57The judge lowered Steve Nichols' bail to $250,000,
31:02and after a 10% payment of $25,000 made by his attorney,
31:07Steve was released from prison with an ankle monitor.
31:11Steve continued to await his day in court
31:16while pretrial disputes rumbled on.
31:20Over the course of the next few months,
31:22they went back and forth arguing between the defense
31:25and the prosecution about what evidence
31:27should be included in this trial.
31:29Carrie wanted evidence about Steve's past
31:32to be included in the trial.
31:34These are called prior bad acts,
31:36and they help paint a picture of someone's character.
31:38These prior bad acts included an allegation
31:41that he tried to throw his ex-wife off a balcony in China,
31:45which was allegedly witnessed by a nanny.
31:47I hoped to present evidence of the nanny in Shanghai.
31:52We had a transcript of her interview by police in China.
31:56I had hoped to bring her here from China
31:59to explain to the jury what she saw and experienced.
32:03His first wife was willing to come forward
32:08and testify to that event.
32:10These prior bad acts,
32:12they also included allegations of domestic abuse
32:15and sexual assault against a minor.
32:17I believe Steve Nichols exhibited behavior
32:21towards other domestic partners
32:23that was critical to understanding
32:25why he was responsible for the death of Rhonda Castro.
32:29In February 2016,
32:32seven years since Rhonda's death,
32:34the judge ruled which bad acts could be admitted at trial.
32:38After a prior bad acts hearing,
32:41the judge decided that it would be too prejudicial
32:45for a jury to hear about the incident in Shanghai.
32:50That was a huge blow in the case.
32:52So a jury would never hear about his first wife.
32:57So I lost all of that evidence of intent
33:00towards domestic partners,
33:02his resorting to a plan of violence
33:06that involved shoving off of a high ledge.
33:09So that severely weakened the case.
33:12But another key ruling
33:14was about to make a big impact on the case
33:17regarding Steve's three-hour interview
33:20by San Mateo police following his arrest in 2015.
33:24Those transcripts record
33:27all of his inconsistent statements,
33:30all of his first one story, then another story.
33:33He says, no, we didn't fight.
33:35And then he later says, we fought.
33:37The fact that he says, no, I didn't have my cell phone.
33:40Oh, but you sent a text from the trail.
33:43It wasn't just what he said,
33:45but it was his demeanor towards the victim,
33:47his, I'll dare say, dismissiveness,
33:49his lack of empathy,
33:51his attitude towards the victim,
33:54a lack of care, a lack of emotion.
33:56When you have a witness
33:58who's made multiple different stories,
34:00that should come before the jury.
34:03The interview as a whole was important
34:06for a jury to see his demeanor towards the event
34:09and towards the victim herself.
34:11After a long legal battle,
34:15after an appeal to the Oregon Supreme Court,
34:17the prosecution lost the ability to use evidence
34:21from Steve's police interview.
34:23The judge determined that the rules weren't followed
34:27and said, basically,
34:29that the state couldn't use any of that interview.
34:33At this point, I was pretty concerned
34:35about getting any sort of a conviction,
34:38given, you know, the losses in court
34:41of various critical pieces of evidence.
34:44And the state's case against Steve
34:47was about to be struck another blow.
34:50The first person who talked to Mr. Nichols
34:54at Eagle Creek,
34:56that detective was himself indicted
34:59for sex abuse crimes.
35:00I had one detective destroying evidence,
35:03and then the jury was going to hear, likely,
35:06that the first detective on the scene,
35:10interviewing Mr. Nichols,
35:12was now he himself charged with felony sex abuse.
35:15And so things just didn't get better
35:19for the state's case.
35:20I think it was a difficult case at the outset.
35:22It became much more difficult with rulings
35:26that went against the state,
35:29eliminated evidence that I could use.
35:32There is a cliche of death by a thousand cuts.
35:36And the criminal case suffered quite a few
35:41of those cuts.
35:42With challenges to the state's case mounting,
35:46Carrie and her team faced an uphill battle
35:49to secure a murder conviction against Nichols.
35:56After a number of significant pretrial setbacks
36:00in the state's case against Steve Nichols
36:03for the murder of Rhonda Castro,
36:05Carrie and her team knew their chances
36:07of getting a murder conviction
36:09were growing increasingly slim.
36:12In early 2017,
36:14two years since Steve's arrest,
36:16they reluctantly decided to negotiate
36:18with Steve's defense team
36:20to see if they could reach a settlement.
36:22In all of the settlement conferences
36:24I've ever engaged in, no one is happy.
36:27The prosecution is not happy
36:30with the limited justice that they obtain.
36:33The defense is not happy
36:35because they want a not guilty verdict.
36:38After a settlement conference
36:40that was mediated by a judge in the spring of 2017,
36:44we came to a resolution of the case.
36:47Steve pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide
36:51and coercion
36:52and was sentenced to 19 months
36:55plus three years on probation.
36:58Criminally negligent homicide
37:00means Steve was guilty of causing Rhonda's death.
37:03In this case, taking her on that dangerous hike
37:06in dangerous conditions
37:08and failing to protect her safety.
37:10Coercion indicates that he may have
37:13illegally pressured or coerced Rhonda
37:16and may or may not have tricked her
37:19into going on that fatal hike that day.
37:22While there was plenty of suspicion
37:24and circumstantial evidence,
37:26the state failed to reach the high burden of proof
37:29needed for murder in this case.
37:31Steve also pleaded guilty to sex abuse
37:35in the third degree for sleeping
37:37with Rhonda's underage relation.
37:39He was then placed on a sex offenders register.
37:44Following his sentencing,
37:46Steve received credit for the 19 months
37:48he'd already spent behind bars.
37:51With no time left to serve,
37:53he was released.
37:55One of my great disappointments
37:57is that Mr. Nichols
37:59did not receive additional prison time,
38:02but some justice is better than no justice.
38:05And so the energy that I put into the case,
38:09while it wasn't the end result
38:11that I at the outset was hoping for,
38:14I'm very gratified that we got some justice
38:18for Rhonda Castro and her family.
38:20My family's reaction to the sentencing
38:22was anger and frustration.
38:24You know, and just a sense of helplessness,
38:28and almost like being re-traumatized all over again,
38:30honestly.
38:32I was angry and I felt offended
38:34and I felt like it was just another slap in the face
38:37to the 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,
38:46but because it was being framed as an accident.
38:51In March 2018,
38:53a 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
39:03to provide for her future.
39:05So when the adoption was finalized for their daughter,
39:08I was there the day they had the court hearing,
39:11you know, and the full foster family was there
39:14and it was celebratory and all that.
39:15I'm coming up the sidewalk
39:17and I'm at the corner of the courthouse
39:19and who do I see standing at the entrance
39:22maybe 50 feet away from me?
39:24Steve.
39:26There he is.
39:27I could charge at him and, you know what I mean,
39:30it would have been over for both of us, you know,
39:32we'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 eye contact and, you know,
39:40it still was surreal to me even just being able to see him,
39:46much less him walking free.
39:48The only bright spot is that her daughter is safe
39:52and, you know, has been with decent people.
39:55This case has eaten 15 years of my life.
39:59That's how long I've been involved with this.
40:02Rhonda didn't get justice.
40:04What we were trying to do ultimately was to protect her child,
40:11her legacy.
40:13This has been a mission.
40:15A lot of blood, sweat and tears
40:17into trying to see that this young girl had a life.
40:24We can't give her back her mom,
40:26but I hope that she goes on to have a good life.
40:32The victim's daughter is now in a safe home
40:35and is growing up with a much different family
40:39than she would have.
40:41That's important to me.
40:42So that alone makes it worth it.
40:44Do I think that Rhonda got perfect justice?
40:48Absolutely not.
40:49I think she got the justice she would have wanted
40:55for her daughter,
40:56that her daughter was not raised
40:58by the man responsible for her death,
41:01and also that it should only be her daughter
41:04that benefits from the insurance money
41:07due to her death, not anybody else.
41:10And I'm hopeful that her loved ones saw
41:13that that result was important.
41:15Doherty and Carrie Rasmussen deserve a ton of credit.
41:21They are the ones that blocked Steve
41:23from getting his hands on the money
41:25and got the grand jury hearing
41:28and him indicted and all that.
41:30So, yes, I am grateful to them for sure.
41:33They really put a lot of effort into all this
41:36and really wanted to see justice for Rhonda and her daughter,
41:39even though things didn't turn out ideally.
41:42Ideally.
41:44After Steve was sentenced,
41:46he continued to do lots and lots of TV appearances,
41:50sit-down interviews,
41:51and his story just continued to change.
41:54The TV appearances suggest
41:56a lack of any kind of remorse at all
42:01or even understanding of the suffering of Rhonda,
42:05of her family, of his daughter.
42:07It illustrates somebody who is utterly egocentric,
42:11somebody who really sees things purely from his own perspective,
42:16who is prepared to turn any circumstances to his own advantage,
42:21even a criminal conviction.
42:23He's using as a platform to become a celebrity.
42:26It's like he's living his own big adventure.
42:29And what happened to Rhonda is a footnote in his big life story.
42:41Today, 16 years on from Rhonda's tragic death,
42:45Jeff's memories of his sister still shine bright.
42:48It's hard to put into words what a phenomenal individual that she was
42:52and what an impact it's had on her being gone.
42:55The last time I spoke to Rhonda,
42:57she was at my house with her daughter,
42:59being silly, goofy humor, and playing with the kids.
43:04Rhonda was a great person.
43:05We all loved her.
43:06And she really was glue in our family.
43:09What's important going forward right now
43:11is that people know the truth,
43:13that 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
43:24to 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
43:41that I could do to honor Rhonda's memory
43:43to be as active in her daughter's life as I can.
43:48I am by no means a religious person.
43:50But, you know, when you see something glimmer for a second,
43:52or like a light bounce off something or whatever,
43:54or like you see a shiny object,
43:56and just for that split second,
43:57you see that little sort of sharp edge of light
44:00or 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.
44:08Sometimes I let myself go there and be sad about it,
44:10but I also feel like, you know, she's with me.
44:13And so part of how I deal with it
44:15is I just try to honor Rhonda's memory.
44:26We wrote to Steven Nichols outlining the allegations
44:29and evidence discussed in this program
44:31and provided him with an opportunity to respond.
44:35Mr. Nichols did not respond.
44:40.
44:45.
44:47.
44:50.
44:59.
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