As trial nears, accused murderer makes strides in court

Published 12:00 am Monday, November 30, 2015

Court records show accused murderer Steven Nichols has made some procedural strides in the case against him.

Nichols, 40, who has family ties to Bend and whose most recent address is a home near Sunriver, is suspected of killing his then-girlfriend, 23-year-old Rhonda Casto, by pushing her from a hiking trail in the Columbia River Gorge in March 2009.

The case, which has garnered national media attention, is scheduled to be tried in mid-2016. A judge will hear the defense’s request to dismiss the case altogether Dec. 16 and Jan. 6-7, according to Oregon’s electronic court records system. If the case is not dismissed, the court must also continue to decide which evidence attorneys can include and who must testify.

Although defendants in murder cases are typically held without bail in Oregon, Nichols, whose first name is spelled Stephen in arrest records, was assigned $2 million bail in August after defense attorneys argued the state had only “circumstantial” evidence to show he killed Casto. He remains in custody.

The court is still considering whether, as prosecutors argue, several pieces of evidence relevant to Nichols’ previous relationships and criminal history should be admitted at trial, electronic court records show.

A key piece of contextual evidence in the case is Nichols’ purchase of a life insurance policy prior to Casto’s death. Prosecutors contend he increased Casto’s policy from $500,000 to $1 million between November 2008 and January 2009, allegedly without her knowledge.

The Hood River County District Attorney’s Office first handed down a secret indictment against Nichols in 2014, when he was living in China. He was arrested this February at the San Francisco airport and was detained for several hours while he was interviewed by San Mateo County sheriff’s deputies.

Hood River County Circuit Judge John A. Olson determined Nichols’ interview with sheriff’s deputies at the airport should not be admitted because Nichols invoked his Miranda rights. The state had objected, arguing Nichols had answered deputies’ questions about Casto’s death without “unequivocally” invoking his right to remain silent.

The defense has requested that the case be dismissed on grounds of the approximately five-year delay between the alleged crime and the indictment. The state has argued in response that there is no statute of limitations on murder and prosecutors didn’t know until 2012 that Nichols had increased Casto’s life insurance policy or that Nichols’ siblings had filed a lawsuit against him to “recover monies improperly appropriated” while he was executor of his mother’s estate.

And attorneys for the state contend they should be allowed to include evidence of Nichols’ allegedly questionable history — referred to in criminal proceedings as “prior bad acts” that prosecutors use to establish a defendant’s character — which include multiple accusations against Nichols of sexual abuse and domestic assault.

Exhibits filed in the case include an affidavit from a nanny who worked for Nichols and his ex-wife in Shanghai more than a decade ago, testifying Nichols physically assaulted his ex-wife. He returned to the U.S. in February with a Chinese fiancee who did not know Casto died during the hiking incident or that Nichols had lived in China previously, according to court records.

Nichols was charged with five counts of first-degree sexual abuse in Deschutes County in 2009, electronic court records show. Each of the charges were dismissed with prejudice in June 2011, meaning the charges cannot be refiled. Court records in the current murder case state Nichols pleaded guilty to sexual harassment instead and allege he sexually abused a relative of Casto’s.

Defense attorneys have also claimed the case should be dismissed altogether because a Hood River County sheriff’s deputy’s hard drive containing evidence pertinent to the case was erased.

Nichols’ attorney, Michael Arnold, argued in a series of court appearances that Nichols should be assigned bail this summer and that witnesses from the Hood River County Sheriff’s office and other police agencies shouldn’t be able to include in testimony their conclusions about whether Casto was pushed or fell from the trail because those conclusions weren’t scientifically valid.

— Reporter: 541-383-0376,

cwithycombe@bendbulletin.com