101 YEARS IN PRISON FOR NICHOLS MURDER

101 YEARS IN PRISON FOR NICHOLS MURDER

By Lee Revis
Editor, Valdez Star

COURT HOUSE - Calling Daniel Lee Nichols dangerous and beyond rehabilitation, Judge Donald Hopwood sentenced the defendant to 99 years in prison for his first degree murder conviction last January for the strangulation death of his mother, Dixie Nichols. He also added two years for unrelated weapons charges, for a total of 101 years.

"The defendant is a dangerous person," Judge Hopwood stated Monday afternoon during the lengthy sentencing process in the emotionally charged courtroom. After listening to arguments from Prosecutor Richard Payne, Defense Attorney Abigail Sheldon and the defendant himself, the Judge explained his reasoning before passing sentence. "He has made no expressions of remorse," said Judge Hopwood, citing the fact that Nichols not only strangled his mother, but left her dead body on the ground and walked away, only to go out for a burger and coke within hours of her murder. "I find this to be an astonishing lack of feeling," he told the courtroom.

Prosecutor Richard Payne originally asked the court for a sentence of 99 years, 60 years served before he could be considered for parole and two sentences of two years each for two weapons charges that Nichols had plead guilty for almost two years ago. "It shocks the conscience of the average person," Payne told the judge when asking for the harsh sentence, citing the numerous previous assaults, the gruesome nature of the murder and Nichols previous failures to stay out of trouble with the law. "He can not be rehabilitated," he told the court. "He used his bare hands to kill his mother."

Defense Attorney Abigail Sheldon asked for a less harsh sentence, pleading that Nichols never had a chance to be rehabilitated and was not generally a violent person. While acknowledging that Dixie was a beloved person in the community, she said that "something went wrong in his family," and that Nichols was by and large a peaceful person. "The court would not regret giving him that chance," she said.

The judge then gave Nichols a chance to speak on his own behalf. Nichols said his constitutional right to the pursuit of happiness had been violated by the state over the years, that his parents owed him money and were in cahoots with authorities from D.A., the FBI and more, while once referring to his mother as "Mrs. Nichols."

He did acknowledge that he had caused his family grief, but went to great lengths to blame his mother for her own death. "What happened with my mother was extremely tragic," he told the judge, but claimed his trial for her murder was distorted and the evidence and testimony was taken out of context. "She was the initial aggressor in our confrontation there," he said.

The closest he came to an apology occurred when he told the court, "I don't want to make this anymore difficult for my family than it already is."

His attempts to remove himself from culpability in the crime fell on deaf ears. "I can believe nothing he says," Judge Hopwood stated before sentencing.

He then handed down the 99 year sentence, "The maximum term I can do," he said then added "None of that suspended."

He also stipulated that Nichols can not be considered for parole until he has served a minimum of 50 years in prison because it was the only way to protect Nichols family, friends and former friends. "He could kill again," he stated.

Judge Hopwood, who retired after the Nichols trial last January, but reentered the courtroom to close out this case, stated that only once before had he ever placed such a restriction on a defendant's parole.