Wagner

A Bend man charged with murder in the 2009 fatal fall of his girlfriend on a popular trail in the Columbia River Gorge sued MetLife in 2011 after the company declined his claim for proceeds from her life insurance policy, purchased months before her death, court records show.

Stephen P. Wagner Nichols, 40, whose arrest report lists an address near Sunriver, is accused of killing 23-year-old Rhonda Kristen Casto, of Portland, according to Hood River County Circuit Court records. Casto fell about 100 feet while hiking a steep section of the Eagle Creek Trail, according to The Oregonian.

An October 2011 settlement agreement stated Nichols and his daughter with Casto were entitled to proceeds from the life insurance policy, federal district court records show.

No one answered the door Wednesday at the address listed on Nichols’ arrest report. Mari Dereus, the owner of the property according to Deschutes County property records, could not be reached for comment via phone.

As first reported by the Hood River News , in late 2008 Nichols and Casto bought MetLife life insurance policies with benefits of $1 million to each of them, according to a June 2011 U.S. District Court opinion. Each policy named the other as the primary beneficiary; their child, born in mid-2008, was a contingent beneficiary. Nichols and Casto had been romantically involved since 2005, according to the opinion.

Nichols submitted a claim for the proceeds, the opinion states. Julia Anne Simmons, Casto’s mother, filed a complaint against MetLife with the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services in response to the claim. The company denied Nichols’ claim for proceeds in 2009, stating it was “unclear” whether Nichols was involved in Casto’s death . Neither Simmons nor Casto’s father, Timothy Alan Casto, could be reached for comment Wednesday.

Simmons filed a wrongful death suit against Nichols in Multnomah County Circuit Court in 2011, where it has been put on hold pending review by the Hood River County district attorney, according to The Oregonian. Court records pertaining to the Multnomah County proceedings were not immediately available Wednesday.

San Mateo County (California) Sheriff’s deputies arrested Nichols without incident at the San Francisco International Airport on Feb. 2, according to San Mateo County Sheriff’s Deputy Rebecca Rosenblatt. Rosenblatt wrote in an email Tuesday that Hood River Police alerted San Mateo County that Nichols had a warrant for his arrest and that he was scheduled to arrive from China that day. According to Rosenblatt, Nichols was on his way to Medford from San Francisco.

As of Wednesday evening, Nichols was being held without bail in the Northern Oregon Region Corrections Facility in The Dalles.

A secret indictment on the murder charge was handed down in Hood River County April 18, 2014, court records show. A Hood River County Circuit judge issued a warrant for Nichols’ arrest April 21.

Nichols was charged with five counts of first-degree sexual abuse in Deschutes County in 2009, according to the Oregon Judicial Information Network. Each of the charges were dismissed with prejudice in June 2011, meaning the charges cannot be refiled.

— Reporters: 541-383-0376,

cwithycombe@bendbulletin.com