00:00:03
[dramatic music] NARRATOR: A fatal fall from
a remote mountain trail. A young woman's life
erased in an instant.
00:00:20
JEFF CASTO: When I found
out, I practically collapsed on the floor right there. NARRATOR: Was it just
a tragic accident--
00:00:26
- Steve's account
of what had happened was that Rhonda had slipped
and fallen because she was
00:00:32
pretending to be Supergirl. NARRATOR: --or could
the prosecution-- MAN 1: One, two, three.
00:00:38
NARRATOR: --prove
it was murder? DARDIE ROBINSON: If she
ran off the edge, she would never have landed
that far from the cliff.
00:01:00
[soft piano music] - Everybody needs to have
someone in their life that believes in them.
00:01:12
And that was Rhonda. AMBER HAQUE: Rhonda Casto
was born in 1985, in Texas, and she was known
for being attractive woman.
00:01:23
She had a really outgoing,
bubbly personality. Friends and family
described Rhonda as just so
00:01:28
easygoing, great to be around. She had this really
infectious personality and she was really fiercely
loyal about the people
00:01:36
that she loved. - Rhonda was a very loving,
caring, non-judgmental person. Really kind of goofy
sense of humor like mine.
00:01:45
Very outspoken, super loyal
to her friends and family. You know, it's cliche
to say it, but it's true,
00:01:50
she's my best friend. You know, we were close. She's the type of person who
lights up a room or energy
00:01:57
when she comes into a room. AMBER HAQUE: 20-year-old Rhonda
moved to the Portland, Oregon
00:02:04
area with her mom, Julia. The two had a really
close relationship. Julia was looking
to move house and
00:02:11
she saw an ad online for a man
advertising his spare room in his three-bedroom house.
00:02:17
- And that's how
she found Steve. - Not long after
Julia moved in, she introduced her
daughter to Steve.
00:02:26
She thought that the pair would
get on really well, and before long, they were an item.
00:02:30
JEFF CASTO: Steve, he had the
ability to be very charming. He's well-spoken,
physically fit,
00:02:37
and he shared a lot
of similar interests. I think that there was
genuine attraction there.
00:02:43
AMBER HAQUE: It seems that
Steve had all of the attributes that Rhonda was
looking for, and
00:02:47
he was willing to really
splash the cash on her and impress her. - On the night that she had
first went on a date with
00:02:55
Steve, she came home and she
had this little-- dainty little tennis bracelet on.
00:03:00
You could tell it was real. It was-- it was nice. I mean, not like $1
million bracelet,
00:03:03
but certainly, you
know-- within, you know, low four-figure range. - Rhonda then moved
in with Steve,
00:03:10
and eventually
the two moved out and got their own apartment. Three years later,
Rhonda was pregnant,
00:03:15
and in 2008 they
had a baby daughter. JEFF CASTO: She doted
on her daughter. It's hard to put into words.
00:03:23
She was meant to be a mom. Her daughter was her world. Our childhood was
not the greatest,
00:03:31
and so she wanted
for her daughter to have all those things
that we didn't have.
00:03:35
You know, the structure,
the stability, the parent to dote on them
and show them the way
00:03:40
and how to make
it in the world. AMBER HAQUE: This is what
she'd been waiting for.
00:03:45
And she really grew
into that role as a mother. NARRATOR: Before starting
a family with Steve,
00:03:50
Rhonda was a rising star
on the Portland modeling scene. Rhonda was a beautiful woman,
really naturally attractive.
00:03:57
- She actually did get involved
with a modeling agency, and she had a portfolio and
headshots and all that stuff.
00:04:03
AMBER HAQUE: And she had
a really successful career modeling for brands like Nike.
00:04:08
After giving birth, Rhonda
was really keen to get back to her modeling jobs. She had a potential
job lined up
00:04:13
as a Maria Sharapova
lookalike, so she really wanted to get back into shape. Steve was telling his
friends that Rhonda
00:04:20
was keen to lose some
of her baby weight to bounce back into her
job, and so they'd
00:04:24
talked about going hiking. NARRATOR: But Rhonda
believed there might be another reason
for their hiking trip
00:04:30
into the mountains. JEFF CASTO: I remember
Rhonda telling us about it. He's going to propose to me.
00:04:36
And they had literally
looked at rings, and so she was legitimately
excited about this hike.
00:04:42
[intriguing music] NARRATOR: On March 16,
2009, Rhonda and Steve set off on a hike
on the Eagle Creek Trail
00:04:51
in Oregon's Columbia
River Gorge. It's an area that
local investigator Dardie Robinson, who's lived in
Oregon for more than 20 years,
00:05:02
knows well. - The Columbia River Gorge
is a beautiful historic and natural scenic area.
00:05:09
It's known for rugged terrain,
gorgeous views, sudden weather changes, and it's quite desired
by hikers, climbers, anyone who
00:05:19
loves to go out and recreate. The Eagle Creek
Trail quickly goes from being no elevation up
to a couple of hundred feet
00:05:29
at places above the creek. AMBER HAQUE: Eagle Creek
Trail is known for having really narrow pathways.
00:05:35
Some of them you can
only go one at a time, and there's some sheer
drops of up to 150 feet.
00:05:41
JEFF CASTO: It's considered to
be advanced because, you know, the drop offs and there's
places where there's
00:05:48
not guardrails, but just rope. It's beautiful,
but also very dangerous, especially if you're
not familiar with it
00:05:54
or not extra careful
and know what you're doing. AMBER HAQUE: The weather
started out pleasant that day,
00:06:00
but then things took
a bit of a turn. It really started
to pour down with rain, and the conditions
became quite treacherous.
00:06:08
NARRATOR: As the bad
weather closed in on the couple's
remote hike, at 6:09 PM, a frantic call was made.
00:06:34
- He said that he tried to call
911, but there was no service. So then he'd had to climb back
up again to make the call.
00:07:06
AMBER HAQUE: Around 20 minutes
after Steve made the 911 call, first responders
and police arrived.
00:07:12
They found Rhonda's
body, and they pronounced her dead at the scene. On the same evening,
Rhonda's family
00:07:20
started to become concerned. Her mom, Julia, was
babysitting their daughter, and she hadn't heard
from Rhonda for hours.
00:07:26
JEFF CASTO: I
thought it was weird that she wasn't
answering her phone, so I just figured, oh,
they're out of service.
00:07:31
But as afternoon turned
into early evening, I started getting
really concerned. This is not typical.
00:07:37
Like, she wouldn't want to
leave their daughter that long. - Family members were calling.
00:07:41
They were texting Rhonda,
and they really started to get alarmed as the hours went on.
00:07:46
Around 8:00 PM, there
was a knock at the door. A local chaplain had been
sent by the fire service
00:07:53
and he told Julia that
her daughter was gone. NARRATOR: Meanwhile,
Rhonda's brother,
00:07:59
Jeff, was still awaiting news
on his sister's whereabouts. JEFF CASTO: Once
it got past dark,
00:08:04
I was starting to feel
kind of panicky, and so I called my mom again
and my mom's boyfriend answers,
00:08:12
and I was like, did you
guys get a hold of her? And he's like, yep, it's done. And I was like,
what do you mean?
00:08:17
What's done? He's like, done,
dude, she's dead. [tense music] Like, that's literally
how he told me.
00:08:24
No exaggeration. And I just collapsed. You know, I didn't pass out,
but I just dropped the phone
00:08:30
and was like, oh my god,
you know what I mean? I was just stunned. I didn't know what
to say or do or whatever.
00:08:37
NARRATOR: Steve also phoned
his family with the tragic news about Rhonda. - Steve Nichols called his
own father to break the news
00:08:45
about what had happened. He was so overwhelmed with
emotion and floods of tears that his dad could barely
understand what he was saying.
00:08:53
He was hysterical at this
point, saying, Rhonda's dead, she's fallen. She slipped on ice
and fell off the edge.
00:09:00
NARRATOR: Reeling from
the devastating news about his sister, Jeff
headed over to his
00:09:05
and Rhonda's mother's house. - Everybody was there,
and she had Rhonda's daughter,
00:09:12
and I was trying
to focus on being strategic and staying
level-headed because everyone
00:09:19
was super upset. They were just distraught. I mean, they were in disbelief. And so the sheriff's
department came
00:09:26
and was telling us a little
bit about what had happened. Yeah, that was, uh, how
I found out that night.
00:09:37
[intriguing music] NARRATOR: In March 2009, after
Rhonda Casto had fallen 150 to her death while hiking with
her partner Steve Nichols,
00:09:48
Steve talked to police
about what had happened. - Steve's account was that
Rhonda had slipped and fallen
00:09:55
because she was running around
pretending to be Supergirl with a towel around her neck.
00:10:00
NARRATOR: But other
aspects of Steve's story began to arouse suspicion. AMBER HAQUE: His calm
demeanor, the way
00:10:07
he was answering questions
about what happened on the day and in the build-up just
weren't quite adding up.
00:10:13
After Rhonda had fallen,
it took Steve an hour and a half to make
the call to 911.
00:10:20
Steve said that it took him
over an hour to scramble down to where
Rhonda's body was,
00:10:25
and then he began
mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on her. - He claimed also that he
laid down on top of her
00:10:32
and took a nap. DONNA YOUNGS: Can
this be explained by-- by him being
in a state of shock?
00:10:39
In a state of shock,
yes, you're confused, trying to work
out what's happening, but you would also be
overwhelmed by the need
00:10:47
to get emergency help
as quickly as possible. The idea that you
might just be stuck
00:10:54
in a state of absolute
inertia for an hour and a half when a loved one is
desperately needing assistance
00:11:01
makes no sense. - Another detail that jumped
out about this 911 call was that Steve seemed more
concerned about his own
00:11:09
well-being, that he had deemed
Rhonda was already dead, and he was more concerned
about the authorities
00:11:14
coming to help him. [intriguing music] DONNA YOUNGS: Police
arriving on the scene
00:11:20
were struck by how Steve seemed
to be relatively calm, and more concerned with needing
a blanket for himself
00:11:27
than what had
happened to Rhonda. Here we have someone whose
focus is utterly egocentric,
00:11:36
even in this moment
of Rhonda's death. He seems to have no
sense that he needs even
00:11:46
to pretend to care about other
people, let alone genuinely showing any empathy
for the situation.
00:11:53
There's an absence
of-- of awareness of anyone other than himself. In emergency
situations, yes, there's
00:12:03
a self-protective drive
that comes to the surface, but more powerful is the drive
to protect those that you love.
00:12:12
So this bias he's showing
towards his own comfort rather than what has happened
to Rhonda is remarkable.
00:12:20
- Another detail that jumped
out about this hike that day were the conditions. DARDIE ROBINSON: It
was horrendous weather.
00:12:26
That time of year is known
in the gorge for being windy, rainy. There was some ice.
00:12:33
Snow can come up suddenly. - Why would this couple
go up on a really advanced hike in such
treacherous,
00:12:40
dangerous conditions? NARRATOR: Hood
River County Police also had questions over the
positioning of Rhonda's body.
00:12:48
- When the police
arrived, Steve had claimed that Rhonda's body
was right next to the river,
00:12:54
but when they found her, she
was around 100 feet away, and it was really hard
for them to work out
00:12:59
where exactly she had fallen. - He claimed that
he gave her CPR. Mr. Nichols couldn't
have given her
00:13:06
CPR because she was found
face down and in no realm, in no world do you ever
give someone CPR face down.
00:13:14
- Also, there were
no marks or tracks found near Rhonda's body, and
this suggested that her body
00:13:19
hadn't been moved. NARRATOR: Detectives
questioned friends and family about Rhonda and Steve,
only to discover
00:13:27
that their relationship had
been rocky from the very start. - When her and Steve first went
out on an official date-date
00:13:34
with, you know, him and his
friends and all that, he ignored her
the whole time, and his
00:13:40
friends picked up
on it, and he ended up making her cry that night. He just was very condescending.
00:13:47
It was the constant
undercurrent of manipulation and being cold and distant
and flirting with other women,
00:13:54
making her cry
on dates, ignoring her, being mean to her. And things only got worse
once their daughter was born.
00:14:01
He basically destroyed
her identity internally. He broke her down. I'm aware of maybe two or three
times where it got physical.
00:14:13
She actually did send me
photos of bruises on her back from him tackling
her at their condo.
00:14:18
And I remember
confronting Steve over it, over the phone, and him
basically laughing it away
00:14:23
and saying, oh, well,
you know how she gets. - Steve's version of how
the relationship was
00:14:27
was very different. He said there was no discontent
between the two of them, and actually, he
had been planning
00:14:33
to propose to Rhonda that day. And when the police questioned
him, well, where's the ring?
00:14:38
He suggested maybe it
had fallen in the river. NARRATOR:
But according to Jeff, even Rhonda had her doubts
about Steve's intentions
00:14:47
on the hike. JEFF CASTO: The hike was
planned at least a week or two in advance.
00:14:52
It stuck in my mind that
Rhonda had said something to me and my grandma. She said it sort
of irreverently,
00:14:57
jokingly-- but she's
like, well, you know, Steve's either going to kill me
or he's going to propose to me.
00:15:03
[ominous music] NARRATOR: After hearing
conflicting reports about the state of Rhonda
and Steve's relationship,
00:15:11
detectives hoped Rhonda's
autopsy report would provide more information. - Two days after her death,
Rhonda's autopsy results
00:15:20
were quite surprising. - Rhonda's pelvis
was shattered. This suggests that she had,
in fact landed on her feet,
00:15:28
not headfirst. - These autopsy results
seemed to support Steve's version of events
that Rhonda had fallen
00:15:35
or she jumped. The injuries didn't
show any signs of an altercation between
the two beforehand,
00:15:42
and no signs of foul play. The autopsy also found
traces of marijuana and some prescription
medication in Rhonda's body.
00:15:50
And although Steve had
suggested she was acting high, there wasn't enough
traces of the drugs
00:15:55
in her system to suggest that
she'd been out of control. NARRATOR: The coroner
classified Rhonda's cause
00:16:03
of death as multiple
blunt force injuries, which were consistent
with a fall from over 150 feet.
00:16:11
The manner of death was
listed as undetermined. Police suspected foul play,
but without witnesses or
00:16:20
any physical evidence,
Rhonda's case stalled and Steve moved away with
their young daughter
00:16:26
to live with his
family in Bend, Oregon. AMBER HAQUE: When Steve
Nichols moved on with his life,
00:16:32
Rhonda's mother,
Julia, was still convinced that there had been
a reason why her daughter died,
00:16:38
and she was convinced that
that was because of money. Julia claimed that Steve
had lost a lot of money
00:16:44
in the 2008
financial crash, and that he was trying to claim
some of these funds
00:16:49
back by claiming life insurance
money from Rhonda's death. NARRATOR: A few months
before Rhonda died,
00:16:55
Steve had taken out life
insurance policies for him and Rhonda, worth $1 million each.
00:17:03
- Steve claimed that Rhonda
was the one pressuring him to take out
this life insurance,
00:17:08
but Rhonda's family
disputed this. They say it was Steve
who put the pressure on.
00:17:12
- I mean, Rhonda wouldn't even
have known all the nitty gritty behind terms and, you
know, double indemnity,
00:17:18
accidental death
clauses and all that. So absolutely, Steve
was behind the policy.
00:17:22
- Just 10 days after Rhonda's
death, Steve put in a claim for the life insurance money.
00:17:28
The detectives found
this suspicious, so they asked
for the money to be withheld while the
investigation was unfolding.
00:17:35
NARRATOR: But due to the lack
of physical evidence, the case ground to a halt.
Over the next two years,
00:17:42
Rhonda's mother grew frustrated
at the lack of progress, and in a bid to stop Steve from
claiming the life insurance
00:17:48
money, opened a civil case. - In 2011, Julia
contacted a law firm and she managed to get
a really tenacious
00:17:57
investigator known as Dardie
Robinson, to take on the case. - The primary impetus for me
to get involved in this
00:18:04
was that there was a baby
of about a year and a half old who was purportedly
in the custody of the man
00:18:11
who had murdered her mother. That deserved a look. NARRATOR: When Dardie began
to investigate Steve's past,
00:18:19
she was astounded. - Nichols had been
previously married. I learned that he had given up
custody of his prior daughter.
00:18:27
I learned that Mr.
Nichols had attempted to throw his prior
wife off the balcony
00:18:32
of a high rise in China. NARRATOR: Investigators
also discovered he had sexually assaulted one
of Rhonda's relatives, who
00:18:40
was a minor, and then tried
to convince her that she could become his baby's mother.
00:18:46
- If this were true, this
would be the kind of behavior you would expect from
somebody with a psychopathic
00:18:51
personality, somebody
who is prepared to do anything to achieve
their own objectives.
00:19:00
NARRATOR: Dardie felt convinced
that Rhonda's death was no accident, and that
the civil case she was building
00:19:06
against Steve would, in fact,
be strong enough to be tried as a criminal case in court.
00:19:12
In 2012, three years
after Rhonda's death, Dardie took her findings to
the district attorney's office.
00:19:20
CARRIE RASMUSSEN: In 25
years of prosecuting, I had never been brought
a case from a civil law firm.
00:19:25
Dardie and her
attorney that she was working with
at the time presented us with additional
materials that he thought
00:19:33
would warrant a second
look, and I agreed. - Getting the case
reviewed by Carrie
00:19:40
was extremely important because
while we couldn't do anything for Rhonda, there was this
vulnerable young child who
00:19:47
deserved protection,
and she was in the custody of the potential
murderer of her mother.
00:19:54
- The circumstances
around Mr. Nichols, I believe causing
the death of Rhonda Casto,
00:20:02
assaulted my conscience
when I would think about him profiting off
of the million-dollar
00:20:10
insurance policy. I believed that his daughter
needed protection from him and that he was
a dangerous person,
00:20:19
and that if I didn't try to at
least find some justice, that would hopefully lead
to the protection
00:20:30
of Rhonda Casto's
daughter, I wouldn't really be able to live with myself. I at least needed to try.
00:20:36
[intriguing music] NARRATOR: After
Rhonda Casto had fallen to her death
in 2009, the investigation
00:20:47
into whether or not she was
pushed by her partner Steve had gone cold. Four years later, the district
attorney's office was
00:20:56
still looking into the case. Meanwhile, Steve had moved
with his daughter to China.
00:21:02
- Steve soon established
a new life in China. He got a job teaching English
to businessmen out there.
00:21:08
He met a new partner
and they soon got engaged. NARRATOR: Back in Oregon,
deputy district attorney
00:21:15
Carrie Rasmussen and her
team were slowly building a case against Steve Nichols.
00:21:20
- For a prosecutor, it's
always difficult to pick up a cold case. Part of it is you need to take
a new look at the old evidence,
00:21:28
and then decide where
follow-up work needs to happen. When you have a small county
district attorney's office
00:21:36
and small law
enforcement offices, the burden is even greater. And so all of us had
to put some of our own time
00:21:44
in to figure out what leads
needed to be followed, new interviews conducted. So it's really rebuilding
the whole case from scratch.
00:21:55
You're going
to have to persuade, you know, a jury
of 12 people to find beyond a reasonable doubt
that a homicide happened.
00:22:03
And that's very difficult
in a circumstantial evidence case with no witnesses. So what you're
really looking at
00:22:09
are multiple circumstances
that add up to a finding that he was responsible. NARRATOR: Collecting
testimony that
00:22:18
supported Steve's history
of questionable behavior, known as bad acts, was critical
to the success of the case.
00:22:25
CARRIE RASMUSSEN:
Detectives needed to contact various
partners and an ex-wife and the family of Ms. Casto
about what they experienced
00:22:36
at the hands of Mr. Nichols. They had important
information to give us to consider
whether or not we
00:22:45
could provide enough evidence
to the grand jury to consider. NARRATOR: But as the new
case began to gain momentum,
00:22:52
Carrie and Dardie came up
against a surprising setback. - What materialized is that the
lead detective on Rhonda's case
00:23:01
had intentionally
wiped his hard drive. This resulted in the loss
of key evidence
00:23:07
like crime scene photos
and autopsy photos. NARRATOR: The reasons
the hard drive was wiped
00:23:13
have always remained unclear. But what was very
clear was that it was going to have a huge
impact on Rhonda's case.
00:23:21
- The destruction of evidence
by the first detective from 2009 was
a devastating blow.
00:23:29
That's almost impossible
to surmount four a prosecutor. But I was willing to try.
00:23:34
They took the hard
drive and they were able to resurrect
some-- not all, but some of the evidence.
00:23:42
Most importantly, pictures
of the crime scene. And we believed that given
evidence of motive and intent
00:23:51
and the evidence that we
were able to resurrect from the deleted hard drive,
that we had enough to let
00:23:58
a grand jury consider it. NARRATOR: Carrie
presented the case to a grand jury,
who would decide
00:24:03
if there was enough evidence
to indict Steve for the murder of Rhonda Casto. Proceedings were held
in secret to avoid
00:24:12
alerting Steve
to the investigation and risk him never
returning to the US. On April 18, 2014, the jury
made their decision and
00:24:22
Steve Nichols was indicted. - It was a total shock when
I heard he was indicted.
00:24:27
I never thought that
the case would be revived. I had already given
up on any kind of hope
00:24:32
for that to happen. NARRATOR: All
the prosecutors had to do was wait
for Steve Nichols
00:24:37
to return from China
so he could be arrested. - Towards the end
of February 2015,
00:24:43
Mr. Nichols flew back
to the United States to California in order
to renew his child's passport.
00:24:50
Steve and the child landed
at San Francisco airport. He was immediately arrested the
minute they saw his passport.
00:24:59
It triggered
the secret indictment. The child was taken
into protective custody,
00:25:04
and he was taken to the San
Mateo County Jail charged with first-degree murder. NARRATOR: Steve Nichols
was arrested on February 2,
00:25:13
2015, almost six years after
Rhonda fell to her death in 2009. He was interviewed
by detectives
00:25:23
and detained at Northern Oregon
Regional Correctional Facility, awaiting a date to face
charges in court.
00:25:31
JEFF CASTO: When I heard
that Steve had been arrested, I was stunned and I was
grateful that their daughter
00:25:39
was away from him. It was a big mix of emotions. I felt Steve facing trial
for murder was justified.
00:25:46
I was cautiously optimistic,
but really kind of skeptical that he would be
punished for it.
00:25:52
NARRATOR: In May 2015, three
months after Steve's arrest, he appeared in court where
he pleaded not guilty
00:25:59
to the charge of murder. Bail was set at $2 million and
he was detained to await trial.
00:26:08
Meanwhile,
prosecutors continued to build on their theory
that he had pushed Rhonda to her death.
00:26:15
But the lack
of physical evidence meant it wasn't
going to be easy. CARRIE RASMUSSEN:
I was preparing
00:26:20
to deliver a murder case based
on circumstantial evidence. They're very tough. It is not a slam dunk case.
00:26:27
There was no direct witness
to him causing her death. There's no physical evidence
of him placing his hands
00:26:36
on her, for instance. There's nobody
hearing an argument. So there are all
sorts of circumstances
00:26:42
around that show motive,
intent, maybe even planning. The key elements were
the circumstances
00:26:52
surrounding the death itself,
statements that Mr. Nichols had made at the scene,
which were concerning,
00:27:00
statements that he
made after the scene, his behaviors towards others
that pointed to his motivation
00:27:08
in the case. Circumstances around the
million-dollar insurance policy taken out two months earlier
on his girlfriend's life.
00:27:18
Circumstances involving
his attempted assault, if not homicide,
allegedly in Shanghai.
00:27:27
And when you put the whole
picture together, that points to only one
person who caused her death.
00:27:39
NARRATOR: To strengthen
their case, Carrie and the investigators
decided to reenact the fatal
fall at Eagle Creek
00:27:47
in the hope of providing
further evidence that Rhonda was pushed. DARDIE ROBINSON: We
conducted the reenactment
00:27:53
in March of 2015. A reenactment with
experts is something that I routinely do in my cases
to see in real-world terms what
00:28:05
happens, what is going
to happen, what can be seen, where something will land. And in this case, you had
somebody who's claiming
00:28:13
that there was just a fall. I got two dummies,
Laverne and Shirley, that were the exact same weight
as Rhonda was at the time,
00:28:21
and dressed them in exactly
the same clothing so that we would have
the same types of drag.
00:28:28
MAN 1: OK, ready? One, two, three. [grunts] DARDIE ROBINSON: We
did several test runs,
00:28:40
replicating the weather,
the season, the foliage, the time of day,
the trail conditions,
00:28:47
the force that it
required to launch a 140-pound person so that
they would land in that area.
00:28:58
We had the Hood
River County Sheriff. We had sheriff's deputies,
search and rescue.
00:29:04
We had FBI, people
there filming, you know, to documenting
this whole thing. MAN 2: Will help stand her up.
00:29:12
And then we're going
to give her a deed. DARDIE ROBINSON: Well,
the overall findings
00:29:20
were if she jumped
or if she ran off the edge, she would never have landed
that far from the cliff.
00:29:27
Number one. Number two, it
required a forceful shove to get her out that far. Number three, when
she was out that far,
00:29:37
her leg broke open
in the same way that Rhonda's leg broke open. It was just heartbreaking
because by the time
00:29:46
we were done, you
knew what happened. [ominous music] CARRIE RASMUSSEN:
Whether it qualified
00:29:53
as appropriate demonstrative
or scientific evidence, that was going to be
yet another battle
00:29:58
about whether we could
even assert that to a jury. That was another
uncertainty in the case.
00:30:06
NARRATOR: In August 2015,
Steve Nichols appeared in court again for a bail hearing.
00:30:12
CARRIE RASMUSSEN:
Every defendant has the right
to contest their bail, and the judge reviewed
the state of the evidence
00:30:22
as it was at that
point in time. The biggest dispute
is always going to be a circumstantial
evidence case, and
00:30:30
the weight of those
circumstances, or how much weight should be
given to those circumstances.
00:30:36
NARRATOR: Steve Nichols'
defense called into question the scientific rigor
of the prosecution's
00:30:42
crash test dummy
experiment, claiming the tests were inaccurate. - The evidence in the state's
case was weaker,
00:30:50
and the judge, weighing
everything in its totality, agreed to lower his bail to
an amount that he could post.
00:30:59
NARRATOR: The judge lowered
Steve Nichols bail to $250,000. And after a 10% payment of
$25,000 made by his attorney,
00:31:10
Steve was released from
prison with an ankle monitor. Steve continued
to await his day
00:31:17
in court while pretrial
disputes rumbled on. - Over the course
of the next few months,
00:31:24
they went back and forth,
arguing between the defense and the prosecution about
what evidence should
00:31:30
be included in this trial. Carrie wanted evidence
about Steve's past to be included in the trial.
00:31:36
These are called
prior bad acts, and they helped paint a picture
of someone's character.
00:31:40
These prior bad acts
included an allegation that he tried
to throw his ex-wife off a balcony in China,
which was allegedly
00:31:48
witnessed by a nanny. CARRIE RASMUSSEN: I
hoped to present evidence of the nanny in Shanghai.
00:31:54
We had a transcript of her
interview by police in China. I had hoped to bring
her here from China
00:32:01
to explain to the jury what
she saw and experienced. His first wife was
willing to come forward
00:32:10
and testify to that event. AMBER HAQUE: These
prior bad acts, they also included
allegations of domestic abuse
00:32:17
and sexual assault
against a minor. - I believe Steve Nichols
exhibited behavior
00:32:22
towards other
domestic partners that was critical
to understanding why he was responsible
for the death of Rhonda Casto.
00:32:31
NARRATOR: In February
2016, seven years since Rhonda's death,
the judge ruled which bad acts
00:32:38
could be admitted at trial. - After a prior
bad acts hearing, the judge decided
that it would be
00:32:46
too prejudicial for a jury
to hear about the incident in Shanghai. That was a huge
blow in the case,
00:32:54
so a jury would never
hear about his first wife. So I lost all of that
evidence of intent
00:33:01
towards domestic partners, his
resorting to a plan of violence that involved shoving
off of a high ledge.
00:33:11
So that severely
weakened the case. [intriguing music] NARRATOR: But another
key ruling
00:33:16
was about to make a big
impact on the case, regarding Steve's three hour
interview by San Mateo Police
00:33:23
following his arrest in 2015. DARDIE ROBINSON: Those
transcripts record all of his inconsistent
statements,
00:33:32
all of his first one
story, then another story. He says, no, we didn't fight. And then he later
says, we fought.
00:33:39
The fact that he says, no,
I didn't have my cell phone. Oh, but you sent
a text from the trail.
00:33:44
CARRIE RASMUSSEN: And it
wasn't just what he said, but it was his demeanor
towards the victim.
00:33:48
His, I'll dare say,
dismissiveness, his lack of empathy, his
attitude towards the victim,
00:33:55
a lack of care,
a lack of emotion. - When you have
a witness who's made multiple different
stories, that
00:34:03
should come before the jury. CARRIE RASMUSSEN:
The interview as a whole was important for a jury to see
his demeanor towards the event
00:34:11
and towards the victim herself. - After a long legal
battle, after an appeal to the Oregon Supreme
Court, the prosecution
00:34:20
lost the ability
to use evidence from Steve's police interview. - The judge determined that
the rules weren't followed and
00:34:30
said basically that
the state couldn't use any of that interview. At this point, I was pretty
concerned about getting
00:34:39
any sort of a conviction,
given the losses in court of various
critical pieces of evidence.
00:34:47
NARRATOR: And the state's
case against Steve was about to be
struck another blow.
00:34:52
- The first person who
talked to Mr. Nichols at Eagle Creek, that
detective, was himself
00:35:00
indicted for sex abuse crimes. I had one detective
destroying evidence. And then the jury was
going to hear, likely,
00:35:08
that the first detective on the
scene interviewing Mr. Nichols was now he himself charged
with felony sex abuse.
00:35:17
And so things just didn't get
better for the state's case. I think it was a difficult
case at the outset.
00:35:25
It became much more
difficult with rulings that went against
the state eliminated
00:35:32
evidence that I could use. There is a cliche
of death by 1,000 cuts, and the criminal case suffered
quite a few of those cuts.
00:35:44
NARRATOR: With challenges
to the state's case mounting, Carrie and her team
faced an uphill battle
00:35:51
to secure a murder
conviction against Nichols. After a number of significant
pretrial setbacks
00:36:01
in the state's case against
Steve Nichols for the murder of Rhonda Casto,
Carrie and her team
00:36:07
knew their chances of getting
a murder conviction were growing increasingly slim.
00:36:13
In early 2017, two years
since Steve's arrest, they reluctantly
decided to negotiate
00:36:19
with Steve's defense
team to see if they could reach a settlement. - In all of the settlement
conferences
00:36:25
I've ever engaged
in, no one is happy. The prosecution is not happy
with the limited justice
00:36:32
that they obtain. The defense is not
happy because they want a not-guilty verdict.
00:36:39
After a settlement
conference that was mediated by a judge
in the spring of 2017,
00:36:46
we came to a resolution
of the case. NARRATOR: Steve pleaded
guilty to criminally negligent
00:36:51
homicide and coercion and was
sentenced to 19 months, plus three years on probation.
00:36:59
- Criminally negligent
homicide means Steve was guilty of causing
Rhonda's death, in this case,
00:37:05
taking her on that dangerous
hike in dangerous conditions and failing
to protect her safety.
00:37:11
Coercion indicates that he may
have illegally pressured or coerced Rhonda,
and may or may not
00:37:19
have tricked her into going
on that fatal hike that day. While there was plenty
of suspicion and circumstantial
00:37:26
evidence, the state
failed to reach the high burden of proof
needed for murder in this case.
00:37:33
Steve also pleaded guilty to
sex abuse in the third degree for sleeping with Rhonda's
underage relation.
00:37:40
He was then placed on a sex
offenders register. NARRATOR: Following
his sentencing,
00:37:46
Steve received credit
for the 19 months he'd already spent behind bars. With no time left
to serve, he was released.
00:37:55
- One of my great
disappointments is that Mr. Nichols did not
receive additional prison time.
00:38:03
But some justice is
better than no justice. And so the energy that
I put into the case,
00:38:10
while it wasn't
the end result that I-- the outset was
hoping for, I'm very gratified that we got some
justice for Rhonda Casto and
00:38:20
her family. - My family's reaction
to the sentencing was anger
and frustration, you know,
00:38:27
and just a sense
of helplessness and almost like being retraumatized all
over again, honestly.
00:38:33
I was angry and I
felt offended, and I felt like it
was just another slap in the face to the whole
family and Rhonda's memory.
00:38:40
And I just felt like
the whole thing was foul, and not because he
didn't get punished,
00:38:47
but because it was being
framed as an accident. [intriguing music] AMBER HAQUE: In March
2018, a judge
00:38:54
terminated Steve's
custody over his daughter. She has since been adopted
by a loving family.
00:39:01
Her mother's insurance
money remains in a trust to provide for her future. - So when the adoption was
finalized for their daughter,
00:39:09
I was there the day they had
the court hearing, you know, and the full foster family was
there, and it was celebratory
00:39:15
and all that. I'm coming up the sidewalk
and I'm at the corner of the courthouse.
00:39:20
And who do I see
standing at the entrance, maybe 50 feet away from me? Steve. There he is.
00:39:28
I could charge at him
and, you know what I mean? It would have been
over for both of us.
00:39:33
We're both going to jail
or prison, hospital, whatever. But I didn't do anything.
00:39:36
I didn't even speak to him,
but we made eye contact, and, you know, um, it
still was surreal to me
00:39:44
even just being able to see
him much less him walking free. The only bright spot
is that her daughter
00:39:52
is safe and, you know, has
been with decent people. - This case has eaten
15 years of my life.
00:40:01
That's how long I've
been involved with this. Rhonda didn't get justice. What we were trying to do,
ultimately, was to protect
00:40:10
her child, her legacy. This has been a mission. A lot of blood,
sweat, and tears
00:40:18
into trying to see that
this young girl had a life. We can't give her back her
mom, but I hope that she
00:40:30
goes on to have a good life. - The victim's daughter
is now in a safe home and is growing up with
a much different family
00:40:40
than she would have. That's important to me. So that alone
makes it worth it. Do I think that Rhonda
got perfect justice?
00:40:49
Absolutely not. I think she got the justice
she would have wanted for her daughter, that
her daughter was not
00:40:58
raised by the man
responsible for her death, and also that it should
only be her daughter that
00:41:05
benefits from
the insurance money due to her death,
not anybody else. And I'm hopeful that her loved
ones saw that that result
00:41:15
was important. - Dardie and Carrie Rasmussen
deserve a ton of credit. They are the ones
that blocked Steve
00:41:24
from getting his
hands on the money and got the grand jury hearing,
and him indicted and all that.
00:41:30
So yes, I am grateful
to them for sure. They really put a lot
of effort into all this
00:41:37
and really wanted
to see justice for Rhonda and her
daughter, even though things
00:41:41
didn't turn out ideally. AMBER HAQUE: After
Steve was sentenced, he continued to do lots
and lots of TV appearances,
00:41:51
sit down at interviews, and his
story just continued to change. - The TV appearances suggest
a lack of-- of any kind
00:41:59
of remorse at all,
or even understanding of the suffering of Rhonda,
of her family, of his daughter.
00:42:09
It illustrates somebody
who is utterly egocentric, somebody who really
sees things purely
00:42:16
from his own
perspective, who is prepared to turn
any circumstances to his own advantage.
00:42:22
Even a criminal conviction
he's using as a platform to-- to become a celebrity. It's like he's living
his own big adventure.
00:42:31
And what happened to Rhonda
was-- is a footnote in-- in his big life story. NARRATOR: Today, 16 years
on from Rhonda's tragic death,
00:42:46
Jeff's memories of his
sister still shine bright. - It's hard to put
into words what
00:42:51
a phenomenal
individual that she was and what an impact it's
had her being gone.
00:42:55
[emotional music] The last time I spoke
to Rhonda, she was at my house with her daughter being
silly, goofy humor
00:43:01
and playing with the kids. Rhonda was a great person. We all loved her and she really
was the glue in our family.
00:43:10
What's important going
forward right now is that people know
the truth, that Steve Nichols
00:43:15
is a dangerous person,
and that Rhonda's daughter knows the full truth
about what happened.
00:43:22
But I feel almost
more importantly to know how much Rhonda loved
her and was dedicated to her.
00:43:29
Rhonda loved her with
everything she had. It was her life. It was her anchor. It was her newfound
purpose in life.
00:43:39
Ultimately, that's probably
the most valuable thing that I could do to honor
Rhonda's memory,
00:43:43
is to be as active in her
daughter's life as I can. I am by no means
a religious person,
00:43:51
but, you know, when you see
something glimmer for a second or like a light bounce
off something or whatever,
00:43:55
or like you see a shiny object
and just for that split second, you see that little, sort
of sharp edge of light
00:44:01
or glimmer or whatever. And I like to tell
myself sometimes that that's where she's at.
00:44:05
She's just right
there for a second. Sometimes I let myself go
there and be sad about it.
00:44:11
But I also feel like,
you know, she's with me. And so part of how I
deal with it is I just
00:44:17
try to honor Rhonda's memory. [theme music]