Defense witness refutes prosecution's theory of Nicholls fire

A fire expert with more than 30 years experience testified Thursday that accelerants were not used to start the deadly fire at 4107 Undimmed Circle.

Defense witness John Lentini told jurors the Colorado Bureau of Investigation analysis of evidence from the charred home of Timothy and Deborah Nicholls was flawed.

The chemicals CBI experts testified came from the highly flammable cleaner Goof-Off instead came from the burned carpet in the living room, the glue Tim Nicholls shoes were made with or, in the case of the children's pajamas, from contamination at the laboratory, Lentini said.

Deborah Nicholls is charged with first-degree murder, arson and several other felonies in the March 2003 deaths of her three children, Jay, 11, Sophia, 5 and Sierra, 3.

Lentini's testimony came with loads of information about chemistry, xylenes, fire investigation standards and chemical ratios. He was on the stand all day Thursday.

"This is not petroleum xylene," Lentini said of the carpet sample.

He showed charts of the chemical makeup of Goof-Off, then charts of the carpet samples, and how they didn't match exactly. Xylene is the primary component of Goof-Off.

Prosecutors allege Goof-Off was put on the living room furniture then lit it in an attempt to burn the house and collect insurance money to pay off debt caused by the Nicholls' methamphetamine addiction.

Lenteni said the prosecution's fire experts from the Colorado Springs Fire Department, CBI and two independent fire experts' conclusions that the fire started in multiple spots with the use of an accelerant were "intentionally, deliberately misleading."
"Nothing was foreign on any of the stuff that I tested," Lentini said under questioning by Deputy Public Defender Cindy Jones. He added the prosecution experts' conclusions were "based on a faulty premises and inaccurate observations."

Lentini labeled the cause of the fire of "undetermined" and said it could have started by a cat knocking over a candle.

Under cross-examination by Assistant District Attorney Amy Mullaney, Lentini said he has only testified for defense attorneys in the past eight years.

She brought up that Lentini said in Tim Nicholls' trial the xylene ratios found on the children's pajamas were accurate, but Thursday he said those ratios didn't match a flammable liquid.

When answering Mullaney's questions, he often raised his voice and grew defensive. He said he was the best fire investigator in the nation and used words like "incompetent" to describe the work of prosecutors' experts.

A juror asked if Lentini was using the courts to compete with prosecution fire expert John Dehaan.
Lentini denied that but said many of Dehaan's opinions in the past six-to-seven years are "outrageous and unsupportable."
"I'm trying to help the court system avoid making mistakes based on bad science," he said.

Jurors in the 2007 Tim Nicholls trial did not believe Lentini, convicting Nicholls of three counts of murder. He is serving three life sentences.

The defense should wrap up its case today. Deborah Nicholls will likely announce her decision whether or not to testify to 4th Judicial District Judge Steven Pelican.