01x05 - Sandi Nieves

[bunniefuu]

[slow music]

- How can you forgive someone
who does the unforgivable?

- We don't believe this is a
natural death by any means.

And we've got a suspicious fire.

- I just happened
to look on the TV

and I recognize the house.

And then I hear the reporter say

that there are
four children dead.

- If you smell any kind
of smoke in the house,

I would think that you
would get everybody together

and run out of the house.

- We came to a conclusion

that if this is not
a death penalty case

where you k*lled four
of your children,

what is?

[dramatic music]

[tense music]

- The United States is one

of the very few
remaining countries

that actually carries
out executions.

Very few women are
condemned to death

who have a previous
criminal record.

Most of them are on death row
for k*lling intimate partners,

for k*lling children, for
k*lling people they know.

- Something is wrong here.

We don't believe this is a
natural death by any means.

And we've got a suspicious fire.

[slow music]

- Doesn't look like
anything bad happened here.

This call came out
sometime after noon,

around one in the afternoon.

The scene was very confusing.

There was no visible fire
damage from the outside.

The house looked
completely clean.

- They sent the
paramedic rig over there

with two paramedics.

Paramedics came in
through the door

and they see her and her 14
year old son sitting on a sofa,

eating cookies.

And the son wouldn't
talk to them.

He was busy staring at the TV.

There was a light dust of soot,

but not enough to
tell what happened.

At the beginning of this case,

when we were presented
with the information

that four people were
dead in the house,

two people had survived but
were sort of acting drunk,

we had no idea
why this happened.

Had I had more
experience at that time,

I would've recognized
more of the effects

of carbon monoxide.

Just the two larger
persons survived.

Sandi told the paramedics,
"Everything's fine.

We don't need you guys."

And while the one
paramedic started checking

their vital signs, the other
one went through the house.

And as he went down
the central hallway,

he immediately saw that
there had been a fire.

We had fire damage burning the
walls up to about chest high.

- [Edward] The paramedic that
was searching the house came

into the kitchen area

and then he sees
this horrible scene.

It's just this pile
of little girls laying

in the kitchen floor.

- When you're a
homicide investigator,

you think you've seen the worst

and then something
worse happens.

- That's where the...

- That's probably
where it came from.

- We were notified
by our front desk

that takes all
the incoming calls

that there was suspicious
circumstances,

possible homicide,

and we know we
have four victims.

- It was a case
involving a house fire.

And it was really surprising
to me to pull onto the street

and see a tract home
within many other homes

and there was no damage
that you could see.

- I did notice some windows
had a lot of black soot,

but there was no sign of a fire
outside of the home at all.

- Captain [indistinct] and the
partner came in right here.

- At first, I'm thinking, well,

they might be in their
individual bedrooms.

But here again, you just never
know until you get there.

And when we got there,

the little four bodies
were laying in the kitchen.

- For me, the most
disturbing aspect would be

standing there, girl by girl,
documenting the positions

and the conditions
of their remains.

- We realized that the fire
didn't really touch the victims

where they were at.

At that point,

we believe that they
died of smoke inhalation.

- [Woman] I know it's
very dark in there

and it's cluttered and...

- [Woman] Yeah.

- [Woman] There's
not much moving.

- Yeah, this door might
have even been closed.

- [Robert] Fire needs
oxygen to burn.

- [Delores] All the doors and
windows were locked from within.

- The oxygen source inside
the residence was shut off.

- We realized that the fire
had burnt out on its own.

- The many unanswered
questions about this case are

how long did all this last,
what exactly happened?

We're looking for anomalies.

That's a big thing
in any investigation.

Something that was extraordinary
is that the oven is open

and someone had placed
towels inside of the oven

and turned the oven on.

There had been another fire

with towels on top of
the stove on the burners.

It was just very confusing.

- In the hallway, there
was a smoke detector

that had been removed
from the wall.

It was on the floor and
it was completely melted.

And I found that
really, really strange.

- We discovered that
there's gasoline pours

in the central hallway
and in three bedrooms.

When we look at that or I
look at something like that,

pour patterns in multiple
rooms of a house,

that is a clear intention
to burn the entire house

to the ground.

In the master bedroom,

paramedics saw a red gas can
on the floor of that bedroom.

The gas can is not
something you would see

in the living area of a house.

So this is shaping
up very quickly

to be clearly an
intentional act.

[tense music]

- [Child] Now it's recess, Yay!

[dramatic music]

- We're definitely gonna
go talk to the little boy

and the mother at the
hospital, for sure.

As soon as we clear here,

that's where we're
gonna go, the hospital.

'Cause obviously we're gonna try

to get some answers
from them, right?

They were in the house,

so they should know
what happened here.

- At the hospital,

we decided let's
speak with Sandi

and see if she
will talk with us.

- It wasn't the typical
response of a mother at all.

I mean, if you smell any
kind of smoke in the house,

I would think that you
would get everybody together

and run out of the house.

- Look at that.

That's sad, huh?

Those girls, no way did they
deserve anything like that.

Sandi's initial interview
at the hospital,

oh, it just left a
lot to be desired.

- She never tried to get
the kids out of the house.

Even when she called 911, she
was still inside the house.

Things weren't making
a lot of sense.

- It's definitely
not an accident.

This wasn't an outside
stranger that came in

and did this terrible thing.

It had to be
someone that's here.

You just gear yourself
to finding the answers.

- [Delores] In this
case, it was arson.

We found the gas can.

- Hi, Sandi, how
are you doing today?

- Her fingerprints were
developed from the gas can.

- And specks of gasoline on
her clothing that she had worn.

- Okay, we'll see you later.

- I think after that point,

we knew that this was
an intentional act

and it could happen no other
way than from her hands.

- Sandi is the type of person

that, she went to
school, straight A's.

Everything she'd do was good.

I mean, she was a good girl.

- She was a stay at home mom.

The home was always immaculate.

The kids were never,
ever out of...

They were well disciplined,

but it wasn't a controlling
type discipline.

She was the best of moms.

Fernando and Sandi got
together when they were 15.

And I think they got
married when they were 19.

- Sandi and Fernando
had David first

and then it was Nikolet
and then it was Rashel.

- Hi.

Father's Day, 1997,
June the 15th.

- I met Fernando when he was
stationed in Germany in 1986.

At that point, his wife, Sandi,

had left to go
back to the States.

She went with the children

and then filed for divorce
in December of '86.

- On her second
marriage to Dave,

they had Jaqlene, was the baby,

and then Kristl was
the older of their two.

- And then in '92, we
came to California.

Sandi reached out
and then we were able

to see Fernando's children,
David, Nikolet, and Rashel.

- One cartwheel together.

- I think I was seven
when we first started.

- When we reconnected.
- Yeah.

Like actually spending
time together.

And from that moment
on, we were inseparable.

- Can I sh**t now?
- Thank you, thank you.

- Please?

It didn't matter if
we had different moms.

That didn't change anything.

- There was contact and
visitation all the time.

I would say probably
every weekend,

not just Fernando's children,
David, Nikolet, and Rashel,

but also Kristl and
Jaqlene were coming

to spend the weekend.

You know, at birthday
parties, camping, Christmases.

- [Fernando] It's a U-F-cake!

[vocalizing UFO flying]
[kids laughing]

- The last weekend the
children were with us,

it was David's birthday.

He just turned 14.

So then Sunday came around

and he had to bring
the kids back.

The day Fernando dropped
off the children,

he came home and he said,

"I don't know,
something is going on."

Something about her
struck him very weird.

Boy, he had this gut feeling.

And then three days later,

I came home from work

and I just happened
to look on the TV

and I see this blue van

[suspenseful music]

and I recognize the house.

And then I hear the reporter say

that there are
four children dead.

[slow music]

- With any m*rder, any
m*rder-suicide plan, anything,

the big question
of the day is why?

What we learned through
the investigation is

that things clearly were
not going Sandi's way

at this point in
time in her life.

- This is all she
was thinking about.

- Scott?

She was in a relationship
with Scott Folk

and he broke up with her two
weeks before the incident.

- She announced to
him she was pregnant

and he dropped the big b*mb.

"Well, I don't want any kids."

- Four days before the
fire, she had an ab*rtion.

The baby that she was
carrying for Folk.

It is postmarked July 1st

and it's stamped
from Santa Clarita.

We did learn there had been
letters sent to all of the exes.

Fernando Nieves, David
Folden, and Scott Folk.

The letters came to us different
days, but within the week,

all of those sources
had provided us

with the letters that
they had received.

They were all
postmarked July 1st.

So that would've been
the day of the fire.

On Sunday, one of
her ex-husbands

received this in the mail and
it was postmarked July 1st.

Okay, now this
happened July 1st.

And inside is a note from her.

You can read it.

"Now you don't have
to support any of us!

[beeps] you."

- [Man] Wow.

- [Delores] "You are scum."

- On Sunday, one of her
ex-husbands received this

in the mail and it was
postmarked July 1st.

Okay, now this
happened July 1st.

And inside is a note from her.

You can read it.

"Now you don't have
to support any of us.

"[beeps] you."

- [Man] Wow.

- "You are scum."

So we go back in and
we do find the notepad,

along with some other
things that she wrote.

- I think the letter,

it gives you some insight
as to her frame of mind.

There's something
going on with her

that has to do
with this ab*rtion

and the breakup of
Scott the other day.

Yeah, that ab*rtion
thing bothers me.

It's almost like, you know,

having a baby and
postpartum depression.

But she tells us she
cuts on the oven.

We already know from talking
to the next door neighbors

last night, it was so hot
for the next door neighbors,

they had their windows open.

That's how they smelled smoke.

And she tells us in
her house, it was cold.

She cut the oven on.

They don't use the oven for
heat, they use their heater.

- Right.

- [Child] I want a piece
of a nectarine.

- Every seasoned arson
investigator knows

that arson's a very
personal crime.

The victim almost always
knows the suspect.

There's a very unique
subset of arson,

which is filicide by a fire.

Filicide is a parent k*lling
their child, young child.

And filicide by
fire is a phenomena

that is most often
done by women.

There are consistencies
that run through these women

who k*ll their
children with fire.

They do a couple of unique
things that she did.

They give them a treat,
a special something,

a party, a trip to Disneyland.

In Sandi's case, she didn't
have a lot of financial means,

but she did something that
was out of the ordinary.

The evening prior,

she told her kids they're
having a special slumber party

and that they're all gonna
sleep in the kitchen that night.

[kids cheering]

Her son, David,

he's the one that survived
because he stayed in his room.

He goes, I'm not part
of this slumber party,

whatever you're doing.

I'm not part of.

And he went into his room
and disobeyed his mother.

That and his age and his size
is why he survived this event.

[somber music]

There's multiple
reasons that women cite

for k*lling their children.

One of them is the
altruistic reason,

meaning I'm gonna put
'em in a better place.

This is a horrible
situation they're in.

I want to die, so I
wanna take them with me

and we'll all be
in heaven together.

And in the end,

that's what appears was
going on in her mind.

- There's an enormous amount

of physical evidence
in this case.

I think all the evidence,
when taken together,

paints a very clear
picture of what occurred.

- We knew we had a good case.

Once all the evidence came in,

we knew there was a reasonable
probability of conviction.

How can you forgive someone
who does the unforgivable?

- I think as we've been saying

throughout the
beginning of this trial,

it's not the kind
of crime I think

that any of us as human beings
can ever really forget about.

- The psychiatric defense
included postpartum depression.

They had PET scans

to determine whether
she had brain problems.

It was the whole gambit
of psychiatric issues

that they tried to raise.

We brought in our own experts

to counter everything
that they said,

because they tried to say

that she didn't know
what she was doing.

And our experts counter that
by saying she wrote the letter,

she drove to the post office,

that she knew exactly
what she was doing.

- This woman did not
plan on any suicide.

She was in a despondent state

and lost touch with reality
at some moment in time,

when these fires got started,

and had no intent to do
any harm to her children.

- Howard Waco was
Sandi Nieves' attorney.

He was a deputy public defender.

He was very experienced.

And he was a pain,
simple as that.

He did things his way and only
wanted to do things his way.

He would ask the same question
over and over and over again.

- I wholeheartedly believe
because of her character,

the loving mother that she was,

the judicial system was wrong
in everything that they did.

It was literally
a kangaroo court.

- The judge told him,

"Mr. Waco, change the
words of your question.

You can get the evidence
that you are looking for out,

but ask an appropriate
question."

And Mr. Waco wouldn't.

He baited Judge Wyatt
to hold him in contempt.

Mr. Waco, I believe,

was held in contempt eight
times during the trial.

[dramatic music]

[tense music]

- I think all the evidence,
when taken together,

paints a very clear
picture of what occurred.

- To get approval to
seek the death penalty,

you draft a memo
with various criteria

that goes to the death
penalty committee.

They make a recommendation to
the death penalty supervisor,

whether to seek
the death penalty.

And that's what was
done in this case

and he determined that the
death penalty was appropriate.

So we sought it.

The penalty of death is
appropriate for her actions.

If this is not a
death penalty case,

where you k*ll four of
your children, what is?

- She is a very
strong individual,

but at the same time,

this scared her to no end.

- It's unlike anything
I ever thought possible.

I just don't know I believe it.

- You have a woman who
made a conscious decision

to m*rder her four children
while they were sleeping

and prevented them
from saving themselves

by leaving the house.

Justice was definitely
served today.

- When she received
the death penalty,

I was relieved because
there was a sense of, okay,

she's never gonna do it
again, or have a chance.

- In all honesty, a
person who did that

to their own children
should not walk this earth.

[dramatic music]

- California,

to get a case through the
appellate courts takes years,

takes 20 years or longer.

Today was the day
for her resentencing.

I spent 4 1/2 months
trying the case

and I still have an interest.

[slow music]

- We're hoping that it's
gonna be time served.

At the time of this incident,

there was a lot of stress,
hormones, religion.

Everything was all directed
at her at one time.

If this is something
that could have happened,

she definitely was
not in her right mind.

- The California Supreme
Court affirmed the conviction

of Sandi Nieves, but they
reversed the penalty phase.

- The Supreme Court
reversed the case

'cause they felt that
Judge Wyatt went too far.

- It's very clear that
the court was very clear

that they did not
overturn her conviction.

She is a convicted
mass m*rder*r.

They just overturned
her sentence

because of judicial misconduct,

meaning her defense attorney
and the judge had bitter fights

in court in front of the jury.

And that was it.

And that's just defense
attorney shenanigans

and a judge who
fell for the bait.

- The defense attorney
was an obstructionist

and that's what he did every
single day for 4 1/2 months.

And I guess you
could say he won.

- I don't have sympathy
for her at all.

She's right where
she needs to be.

I feel badly for her son, David.

He survived this.

And yes, he survived
it physically,

but I can't imagine
what happened with him

over the last 20 some years.

- The reversal of the death
penalty, I do struggle with that

because David was
in the room with me

when we found out that the
death penalty is subject

to being reversed
in Sandi's case.

And his first
emotion was fright.

His anxiety went sky high and
he is refusing any contact.

He does not want
anything to do with her.

Her decision to k*ll those kids,

to not have them live a life.

She was the one who did this,

who changed not
just their lives,

changed David's, Fernando's,
Christine's, my life.

[somber music]