All language subtitles for Pushed.to.Death.S01E02.Trail.of.Tragedy.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

A fatal fall from
a remote mountain trail.

A young woman's life
erased in an instant.

When I found
out, I practically collapsed

on the floor right there.

Was it just
a tragic accident--

Steve's account
of what had happened

was that Rhonda had slipped
and fallen because she was

pretending to be Supergirl.

- or could
the prosecution--

One, two, three.

- prove
it was murder?

If she
ran off the edge,

she would never have landed
that far from the cliff.

Everybody needs to have
someone in their life

that believes in them.

And that was Rhonda.

Rhonda Casto
was born in 1985, in Texas,

and she was known
for being attractive woman.

She had a really outgoing,
bubbly personality.

Friends and family
described Rhonda as just so

easygoing, great to be around.

She had this really
infectious personality

and she was really fiercely
loyal about the people

that she loved.

Rhonda was a very loving,
caring, non-judgmental person.

Really kind of goofy
sense of humor like mine.

Very outspoken, super loyal
to her friends and family.

You know, it's cliche
to say it, but it's true,

she's my best friend.

You know, we were close.

She's the type of person who
lights up a room or energy

when she comes into a room.

20-year-old Rhonda
moved to the Portland, Oregon

area with her mom, Julia.

The two had a really
close relationship.

Julia was looking
to move house and

she saw an ad online for a man
advertising his spare room

in his three-bedroom house.

And that's how
she found Steve.

Not long after
Julia moved in,

she introduced her
daughter to Steve.

She thought that the pair would
get on really well, and before

long, they were an item.

Steve, he had the
ability to be very charming.

He's well-spoken,
physically fit,

and he shared a lot
of similar interests.

I think that there was
genuine attraction there.

It seems that
Steve had all of the attributes

that Rhonda was
looking for, and

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

Steve, she came home and she
had this little-- dainty

little tennis bracelet on.

You could tell it was real.

It was-- it was nice.

I mean, not like $1
million bracelet,

but certainly, you
know-- within, you know,

low four-figure range.

Rhonda then moved
in with Steve,

and eventually
the two moved out

and got their own apartment.

Three years later,
Rhonda was pregnant,

and in 2008 they
had a baby daughter.

She doted
on her daughter.

It's hard to put into words.

She was meant to be a mom.

Her daughter was her world.

Our childhood was
not the greatest,

and so she wanted
for her daughter

to have all those things
that we didn't have.

You know, the structure,
the stability, the parent

to dote on them
and show them the way

and how to make
it in the world.

This is what
she'd been waiting for.

And she really grew
into that role as a mother.

Before starting
a family with Steve,

Rhonda was a rising star
on the Portland modeling scene.

Rhonda was a beautiful woman,
really naturally attractive.

She actually did get involved
with a modeling agency,

and she had a portfolio and
headshots and all that stuff.

And she had
a really successful career

modeling for brands like Nike.

After giving birth, Rhonda
was really keen to get

back to her modeling jobs.

She had a potential
job lined up

as a Maria Sharapova
lookalike, so she really

wanted to get back into shape.

Steve was telling his
friends that Rhonda

was keen to lose some
of her baby weight

to bounce back into her
job, and so they'd

talked about going hiking.

But Rhonda
believed there

might be another reason
for their hiking trip

into the mountains.

I remember
Rhonda telling us about it.

He's going to propose to me.

And they had literally
looked at rings,

and so she was legitimately
excited about this hike.

On March 16,
2009, Rhonda and Steve

set off on a hike
on the Eagle Creek Trail

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,

knows well.

The Columbia River Gorge
is a beautiful historic and

natural scenic area.

It's known for rugged terrain,
gorgeous views, sudden weather

changes, and it's quite desired
by hikers, climbers, anyone who

loves to go out and recreate.

The Eagle Creek
Trail quickly goes

from being no elevation up
to a couple of hundred feet

at places above the creek.

Eagle Creek
Trail is known for having

really narrow pathways.

Some of them you can
only go one at a time,

and there's some sheer
drops of up to 150 feet.

It's considered to
be advanced because, you know,

the drop offs and there's
places where there's

not guardrails, but just rope.

It's beautiful,
but also very dangerous,

especially if you're
not familiar with it

or not extra careful
and know what you're doing.

The weather
started out pleasant that day,

but then things took
a bit of a turn.

It really started
to pour down with rain,

and the conditions
became quite treacherous.

As the bad
weather closed

in on the couple's
remote hike, at 6:09 PM,

a frantic call was made.

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.

Around 20 minutes
after Steve made the 911 call,

first responders
and police arrived.

They found Rhonda's
body, and they pronounced

her dead at the scene.

On the same evening,
Rhonda's family

started to become concerned.

Her mom, Julia, was
babysitting their daughter,

and she hadn't heard
from Rhonda for hours.

I
thought it was weird

that she wasn't
answering her phone,

so I just figured, oh,
they're out of service.

But as afternoon turned
into early evening,

I started getting
really concerned.

This is not typical.

Like, she wouldn't want to
leave their daughter that long.

Family members were calling.

They were texting Rhonda,
and they really started to get

alarmed as the hours went on.

Around 8:00 PM, there
was a knock at the door.

A local chaplain had been
sent by the fire service

and he told Julia that
her daughter was gone.

Meanwhile,
Rhonda's brother,

Jeff, was still awaiting news
on his sister's whereabouts.

Once
it got past dark,

I was starting to feel
kind of panicky,

and so I called my mom again
and my mom's boyfriend answers,

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?

What's done?

He's like, done,
dude, she's dead.

Like, that's literally
how he told me.

No exaggeration.

And I just collapsed.

You know, I didn't pass out,
but I just dropped the phone

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.

Steve also phoned
his family with the tragic news

about Rhonda.

Steve Nichols called his
own father to break the news

about what had happened.

He was so overwhelmed with
emotion and floods of tears

that his dad could barely
understand what he was saying.

He was hysterical at this
point, saying, Rhonda's dead,

she's fallen.

She slipped on ice
and fell off the edge.

Reeling from
the devastating news

about his sister, Jeff
headed over to his

and Rhonda's mother's house.

Everybody was there,
and she had Rhonda's daughter,

and I was trying
to focus on being

strategic and staying
level-headed because everyone

was super upset.

They were just distraught.

I mean, they were in disbelief.

And so the sheriff's
department came

and was telling us a little
bit about what had happened.

Yeah, that was, uh, how
I found out that night.

In March 2009, after
Rhonda Casto had fallen 150

to her death while hiking with
her partner Steve Nichols,

Steve talked to police
about what had happened.

Steve's account was that
Rhonda had slipped and fallen

because she was running around
pretending to be Supergirl

with a towel around her neck.

But other
aspects of Steve's story

began to arouse suspicion.

His calm
demeanor, the way

he was answering questions
about what happened on the day

and in the build-up just
weren't quite adding up.

After Rhonda had fallen,
it took Steve an hour

and a half to make
the call to 911.

Steve said that it took him
over an hour to scramble

down to where
Rhonda's body was,

and then he began
mouth-to-mouth resuscitation

on her.

He claimed also that he
laid down on top of her

and took a nap.

Can
this be explained by--

by him being
in a state of shock?

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

to get emergency help
as quickly as possible.

The idea that you
might just be stuck

in a state of absolute
inertia for an hour and a half

when a loved one is
desperately needing assistance

makes no sense.

Another detail that jumped
out about this 911 call was

that Steve seemed more
concerned about his own

well-being, that he had deemed
Rhonda was already dead,

and he was more concerned
about the authorities

coming to help him.

Police
arriving on the scene

were struck by how Steve seemed
to be relatively calm, and

more concerned with needing
a blanket for himself

than what had
happened to Rhonda.

Here we have someone whose
focus is utterly egocentric,

even in this moment
of Rhonda's death.

He seems to have no
sense that he needs even

to pretend to care about other
people, let alone genuinely

showing any empathy
for the situation.

There's an absence
of-- of awareness

of anyone other than himself.

In emergency
situations, yes, there's

a self-protective drive
that comes to the surface,

but more powerful is the drive
to protect those that you love.

So this bias he's showing
towards his own comfort

rather than what has happened
to Rhonda is remarkable.

Another detail that jumped
out about this hike that day

were the conditions.

It
was horrendous weather.

That time of year is known
in the gorge for being

windy, rainy.

There was some ice.

Snow can come up suddenly.

Why would this couple
go up on a really

advanced hike in such
treacherous,

dangerous conditions?

Hood
River County Police

also had questions over the
positioning of Rhonda's body.

When the police
arrived, Steve

had claimed that Rhonda's body
was right next to the river,

but when they found her, she
was around 100 feet away,

and it was really hard
for them to work out

where exactly she had fallen.

He claimed that
he gave her CPR.

Mr. Nichols couldn't
have given her

CPR because she was found
face down and in no realm,

in no world do you ever
give someone CPR face down.

Also, there were
no marks or tracks

found near Rhonda's body, and
this suggested that her body

hadn't been moved.

Detectives
questioned friends and family

about Rhonda and Steve,
only to discover

that their relationship had
been rocky from the very start.

When her and Steve first went
out on an official date-date

with, you know, him and his
friends and all that,

he ignored her
the whole time, and his

friends picked up
on it, and he ended

up making her cry that night.

He just was very condescending.

It was the constant
undercurrent of manipulation

and being cold and distant
and flirting with other women,

making her cry
on dates, ignoring her,

being mean to her.

And things only got worse
once their daughter was born.

He basically destroyed
her identity internally.

He broke her down.

I'm aware of maybe two or three
times where it got physical.

She actually did send me
photos of bruises on her back

from him tackling
her at their condo.

And I remember
confronting Steve over it,

over the phone, and him
basically laughing it away

and saying, oh, well,
you know how she gets.

Steve's version of how
the relationship was

was very different.

He said there was no discontent
between the two of them,

and actually, he
had been planning

to propose to Rhonda that day.

And when the police questioned
him, well, where's the ring?

He suggested maybe it
had fallen in the river.

But according to Jeff,

even Rhonda had her doubts
about Steve's intentions

on the hike.

The hike was
planned at least a week

or two in advance.

It stuck in my mind that
Rhonda had said something

to me and my grandma.

She said it sort
of irreverently,

jokingly-- but she's
like, well, you know,

Steve's either going to kill me
or he's going to propose to me.

After hearing
conflicting reports

about the state of Rhonda
and Steve's relationship,

detectives hoped Rhonda's
autopsy report would

provide more information.

Two days after her death,
Rhonda's autopsy results

were quite surprising.

Rhonda's pelvis
was shattered.

This suggests that she had,
in fact landed on her feet,

not headfirst.

These autopsy results
seemed to support

Steve's version of events
that Rhonda had fallen

or she jumped.

The injuries didn't
show any signs

of an altercation between
the two beforehand,

and no signs of foul play.

The autopsy also found
traces of marijuana

and some prescription
medication in Rhonda's body.

And although Steve had
suggested she was acting high,

there wasn't enough
traces of the drugs

in her system to suggest that
she'd been out of control.

The coroner
classified Rhonda's cause

of death as multiple
blunt force

injuries, which were consistent
with a fall from over 150 feet.

The manner of death was
listed as undetermined.

Police suspected foul play,
but without witnesses or

any physical evidence,
Rhonda's case stalled and

Steve moved away with
their young daughter

to live with his
family in Bend, Oregon.

When Steve
Nichols moved on with his life,

Rhonda's mother,
Julia, was still

convinced that there had been
a reason why her daughter died,

and she was convinced that
that was because of money.

Julia claimed that Steve
had lost a lot of money

in the 2008
financial crash, and

that he was trying to claim
some of these funds

back by claiming life insurance
money from Rhonda's death.

A few months
before Rhonda died,

Steve had taken out life
insurance policies for him and

Rhonda, worth $1 million each.

Steve claimed that Rhonda
was the one pressuring

him to take out
this life insurance,

but Rhonda's family
disputed this.

They say it was Steve
who put the pressure on.

I mean, Rhonda wouldn't even
have known all the nitty gritty

behind terms and, you
know, double indemnity,

accidental death
clauses and all that.

So absolutely, Steve
was behind the policy.

Just 10 days after Rhonda's
death, Steve put in a claim

for the life insurance money.

The detectives found
this suspicious,

so they asked
for the money to be

withheld while the
investigation was unfolding.

But due to the lack
of physical evidence,

the case ground to a halt.
Over the next two years,

Rhonda's mother grew frustrated
at the lack of progress,

and in a bid to stop Steve from
claiming the life insurance

money, opened a civil case.

In 2011, Julia
contacted a law firm

and she managed to get
a really tenacious

investigator known as Dardie
Robinson, to take on the case.

The primary impetus for me
to get involved in this

was that there was a baby
of about a year and a half old

who was purportedly
in the custody of the man

who had murdered her mother.

That deserved a look.

When Dardie began
to investigate Steve's past,

she was astounded.

Nichols had been
previously married.

I learned that he had given up
custody of his prior daughter.

I learned that Mr.
Nichols had attempted

to throw his prior
wife off the balcony

of a high rise in China.

Investigators
also discovered

he had sexually assaulted one
of Rhonda's relatives, who

was a minor, and then tried
to convince her that she could

become his baby's mother.

If this were true, this
would be the kind of behavior

you would expect from
somebody with a psychopathic

personality, somebody
who is prepared to do

anything to achieve
their own objectives.

Dardie felt convinced
that Rhonda's death was

no accident, and that
the civil case she was building

against Steve would, in fact,
be strong enough to be tried

as a criminal case in court.

In 2012, three years
after Rhonda's death,

Dardie took her findings to
the district attorney's office.

In 25
years of prosecuting,

I had never been brought
a case from a civil law firm.

Dardie and her
attorney that she

was working with
at the time presented us

with additional
materials that he thought

would warrant a second
look, and I agreed.

Getting the case
reviewed by Carrie

was extremely important because
while we couldn't do anything

for Rhonda, there was this
vulnerable young child who

deserved protection,
and she was

in the custody of the potential
murderer of her mother.

The circumstances
around Mr. Nichols,

I believe causing
the death of Rhonda Casto,

assaulted my conscience
when I would think

about him profiting off
of the million-dollar

insurance policy.

I believed that his daughter
needed protection from him

and that he was
a dangerous person,

and that if I didn't try to at
least find some justice, that

would hopefully lead
to the protection

of Rhonda Casto's
daughter, I wouldn't really

be able to live with myself.

I at least needed to try.

After
Rhonda Casto had

fallen to her death
in 2009, the investigation

into whether or not she was
pushed by her partner Steve

had gone cold.

Four years later, the district
attorney's office was

still looking into the case.

Meanwhile, Steve had moved
with his daughter to China.

Steve soon established
a new life in China.

He got a job teaching English
to businessmen out there.

He met a new partner
and they soon got engaged.

Back in Oregon,
deputy district attorney

Carrie Rasmussen and her
team were slowly building

a case against Steve Nichols.

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,

and then decide where
follow-up work needs to happen.

When you have a small county
district attorney's office

and small law
enforcement offices,

the burden is even greater.

And so all of us had
to put some of our own time

in to figure out what leads
needed to be followed,

new interviews conducted.

So it's really rebuilding
the whole case from scratch.

You're going
to have to persuade,

you know, a jury
of 12 people to find

beyond a reasonable doubt
that a homicide happened.

And that's very difficult
in a circumstantial evidence

case with no witnesses.

So what you're
really looking at

are multiple circumstances
that add up to a finding

that he was responsible.

Collecting
testimony that

supported Steve's history
of questionable behavior,

known as bad acts, was critical
to the success of the case.

Detectives needed

to contact various
partners and an ex-wife

and the family of Ms. Casto
about what they experienced

at the hands of Mr. Nichols.

They had important
information to give

us to consider
whether or not we

could provide enough evidence
to the grand jury to consider.

But as the new
case began to gain momentum,

Carrie and Dardie came up
against a surprising setback.

What materialized is that the
lead detective on Rhonda's case

had intentionally
wiped his hard drive.

This resulted in the loss
of key evidence

like crime scene photos
and autopsy photos.

The reasons
the hard drive was wiped

have always remained unclear.

But what was very
clear was that it

was going to have a huge
impact on Rhonda's case.

The destruction of evidence
by the first detective

from 2009 was
a devastating blow.

That's almost impossible
to surmount four a prosecutor.

But I was willing to try.

They took the hard
drive and they

were able to resurrect
some-- not

all, but some of the evidence.

Most importantly, pictures
of the crime scene.

And we believed that given
evidence of motive and intent

and the evidence that we
were able to resurrect

from the deleted hard drive,
that we had enough to let

a grand jury consider it.

Carrie
presented the case

to a grand jury,
who would decide

if there was enough evidence
to indict Steve for the murder

of Rhonda Casto.

Proceedings were held
in secret to avoid

alerting Steve
to the investigation

and risk him never
returning to the US.

On April 18, 2014, the jury
made their decision and

Steve Nichols was indicted.

It was a total shock when
I heard he was indicted.

I never thought that
the case would be revived.

I had already given
up on any kind of hope

for that to happen.

All
the prosecutors had

to do was wait
for Steve Nichols

to return from China
so he could be arrested.

Towards the end
of February 2015,

Mr. Nichols flew back
to the United States

to California in order
to renew his child's passport.

Steve and the child landed
at San Francisco airport.

He was immediately arrested the
minute they saw his passport.

It triggered
the secret indictment.

The child was taken
into protective custody,

and he was taken to the San
Mateo County Jail charged

with first-degree murder.

Steve Nichols
was arrested on February 2,

2015, almost six years after
Rhonda fell to her death

in 2009.

He was interviewed
by detectives

and detained at Northern Oregon
Regional Correctional Facility,

awaiting a date to face
charges in court.

When I heard
that Steve had been arrested,

I was stunned and I was
grateful that their daughter

was away from him.

It was a big mix of emotions.

I felt Steve facing trial
for murder was justified.

I was cautiously optimistic,
but really kind of skeptical

that he would be
punished for it.

In May 2015, three
months after Steve's arrest,

he appeared in court where
he pleaded not guilty

to the charge of murder.

Bail was set at $2 million and
he was detained to await trial.

Meanwhile,
prosecutors continued

to build on their theory
that he had

pushed Rhonda to her death.

But the lack
of physical evidence

meant it wasn't
going to be easy.

I was preparing

to deliver a murder case based
on circumstantial evidence.

They're very tough.

It is not a slam dunk case.

There was no direct witness
to him causing her death.

There's no physical evidence
of him placing his hands

on her, for instance.

There's nobody
hearing an argument.

So there are all
sorts of circumstances

around that show motive,
intent, maybe even planning.

The key elements were
the circumstances

surrounding the death itself,
statements that Mr. Nichols had

made at the scene,
which were concerning,

statements that he
made after the scene,

his behaviors towards others
that pointed to his motivation

in the case.

Circumstances around the
million-dollar insurance policy

taken out two months earlier
on his girlfriend's life.

Circumstances involving
his attempted assault,

if not homicide,
allegedly in Shanghai.

And when you put the whole
picture together,

that points to only one
person who caused her death.

To strengthen
their case,

Carrie and the investigators
decided

to reenact the fatal
fall at Eagle Creek

in the hope of providing
further evidence

that Rhonda was pushed.

We
conducted the reenactment

in March of 2015.

A reenactment with
experts is something

that I routinely do in my cases
to see in real-world terms what

happens, what is going
to happen, what can be seen,

where something will land.

And in this case, you had
somebody who's claiming

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,

and dressed them in exactly
the same clothing

so that we would have
the same types of drag.

OK, ready?

One, two, three.

We
did several test runs,

replicating the weather,
the season, the foliage,

the time of day,
the trail conditions,

the force that it
required to launch

a 140-pound person so that
they would land in that area.

We had the Hood
River County Sheriff.

We had sheriff's deputies,
search and rescue.

We had FBI, people
there filming,

you know, to documenting
this whole thing.

Will help stand her up.

And then we're going
to give her a deed.

Well,
the overall findings

were if she jumped
or if she ran off the edge,

she would never have landed
that far from the cliff.

Number one.

Number two, it
required a forceful

shove to get her out that far.

Number three, when
she was out that far,

her leg broke open
in the same way

that Rhonda's leg broke open.

It was just heartbreaking
because by the time

we were done, you
knew what happened.

Whether it qualified

as appropriate demonstrative
or scientific evidence,

that was going to be
yet another battle

about whether we could
even assert that to a jury.

That was another
uncertainty in the case.

In August 2015,
Steve Nichols appeared in court

again for a bail hearing.

Every defendant

has the right
to contest their bail,

and the judge reviewed
the state of the evidence

as it was at that
point in time.

The biggest dispute
is always going

to be a circumstantial
evidence case, and

the weight of those
circumstances,

or how much weight should be
given to those circumstances.

Steve Nichols'
defense called into question

the scientific rigor
of the prosecution's

crash test dummy
experiment, claiming

the tests were inaccurate.

The evidence in the state's
case was weaker,

and the judge, weighing
everything in its totality,

agreed to lower his bail to
an amount that he could post.

The judge lowered
Steve Nichols bail to $250,000.

And after a 10% payment of
$25,000 made by his attorney,

Steve was released from
prison with an ankle monitor.

Steve continued
to await his day

in court while pretrial
disputes rumbled on.

Over the course
of the next few months,

they went back and forth,
arguing between the defense and

the prosecution about
what evidence should

be included in this trial.

Carrie wanted evidence
about Steve's past

to be included in the trial.

These are called
prior bad acts,

and they helped paint a picture
of someone's character.

These prior bad acts
included an allegation

that he tried
to throw his ex-wife

off a balcony in China,
which was allegedly

witnessed by a nanny.

I
hoped to present evidence

of the nanny in Shanghai.

We had a transcript of her
interview by police in China.

I had hoped to bring
her here from China

to explain to the jury what
she saw and experienced.

His first wife was
willing to come forward

and testify to that event.

These
prior bad acts,

they also included
allegations of domestic abuse

and sexual assault
against a minor.

I believe Steve Nichols
exhibited behavior

towards other
domestic partners that

was critical
to understanding why

he was responsible
for the death of Rhonda Casto.

In February
2016, seven years

since Rhonda's death,
the judge ruled which bad acts

could be admitted at trial.

After a prior
bad acts hearing,

the judge decided
that it would be

too prejudicial for a jury
to hear about the incident

in Shanghai.

That was a huge
blow in the case,

so a jury would never
hear about his first wife.

So I lost all of that
evidence of intent

towards domestic partners, his
resorting to a plan of violence

that involved shoving
off of a high ledge.

So that severely
weakened the case.

But another
key ruling

was about to make a big
impact on the case,

regarding Steve's three hour
interview by San Mateo Police

following his arrest in 2015.

Those
transcripts record

all of his inconsistent
statements,

all of his first one
story, then another story.

He says, no, we didn't fight.

And then he later
says, we fought.

The fact that he says, no,
I didn't have my cell phone.

Oh, but you sent
a text from the trail.

And it
wasn't just what he said,

but it was his demeanor
towards the victim.

His, I'll dare say,
dismissiveness,

his lack of empathy, his
attitude towards the victim,

a lack of care,
a lack of emotion.

When you have
a witness who's made

multiple different
stories, that

should come before the jury.

The interview as a whole

was important for a jury to see
his demeanor towards the event

and towards the victim herself.

After a long legal
battle, after an appeal

to the Oregon Supreme
Court, the prosecution

lost the ability
to use evidence

from Steve's police interview.

The judge determined that
the rules weren't followed and

said basically that
the state couldn't

use any of that interview.

At this point, I was pretty
concerned about getting

any sort of a conviction,
given the losses

in court of various
critical pieces of evidence.

And the state's
case against Steve

was about to be
struck another blow.

The first person who
talked to Mr. Nichols

at Eagle Creek, that
detective, was himself

indicted for sex abuse crimes.

I had one detective
destroying evidence.

And then the jury was
going to hear, likely,

that the first detective on the
scene interviewing Mr. Nichols

was now he himself charged
with felony sex abuse.

And so things just didn't get
better for the state's case.

I think it was a difficult
case at the outset.

It became much more
difficult with rulings

that went against
the state eliminated

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.

With challenges
to the state's case mounting,

Carrie and her team
faced an uphill battle

to secure a murder
conviction against Nichols.

After a number of significant
pretrial setbacks

in the state's case against
Steve Nichols for the murder

of Rhonda Casto,
Carrie and her team

knew their chances of getting
a murder conviction

were growing increasingly slim.

In early 2017, two years
since Steve's arrest,

they reluctantly
decided to negotiate

with Steve's defense
team to see if they

could reach a settlement.

In all of the settlement
conferences

I've ever engaged
in, no one is happy.

The prosecution is not happy
with the limited justice

that they obtain.

The defense is not
happy because they

want a not-guilty verdict.

After a settlement
conference that

was mediated by a judge
in the spring of 2017,

we came to a resolution
of the case.

Steve pleaded
guilty to criminally negligent

homicide and coercion and was
sentenced to 19 months,

plus three years on probation.

Criminally negligent
homicide means

Steve was guilty of causing
Rhonda's death, in this case,

taking her on that dangerous
hike in dangerous conditions

and failing
to protect her safety.

Coercion indicates that he may
have illegally pressured or

coerced Rhonda,
and may or may not

have tricked her into going
on that fatal hike that day.

While there was plenty
of suspicion and circumstantial

evidence, the state
failed to reach

the high burden of proof
needed for murder in this case.

Steve also pleaded guilty to
sex abuse in the third degree

for sleeping with Rhonda's
underage relation.

He was then placed on a sex
offenders register.

Following
his sentencing,

Steve received credit
for the 19 months

he'd already spent behind bars.

With no time left
to serve, he was released.

One of my great
disappointments

is that Mr. Nichols did not
receive additional prison time.

But some justice is
better than no justice.

And so the energy that
I put into the case,

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

her family.

My family's reaction
to the sentencing

was anger
and frustration, you know,

and just a sense
of helplessness and almost like

being retraumatized all
over again, honestly.

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.

And I just felt like
the whole thing was foul,

and not because he
didn't get punished,

but because it was being
framed as an accident.

In March
2018, a judge

terminated Steve's
custody over his daughter.

She has since been adopted
by a loving family.

Her mother's insurance
money remains in a trust

to provide for her future.

So when the adoption was
finalized for their daughter,

I was there the day they had
the court hearing, you know,

and the full foster family was
there, and it was celebratory

and all that.

I'm coming up the sidewalk
and I'm at the corner

of the courthouse.

And who do I see
standing at the entrance,

maybe 50 feet away from me?

Steve.

There he is.

I could charge at him
and, you know what I mean?

It would have been
over for both of us.

We're both going to jail
or prison, hospital, whatever.

But I didn't do anything.

I didn't even speak to him,
but we made eye contact,

and, you know, um, it
still was surreal to me

even just being able to see
him much less him walking free.

The only bright spot
is that her daughter

is safe and, you know, has
been with decent people.

This case has eaten
15 years of my life.

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

her child, her legacy.

This has been a mission.

A lot of blood,
sweat, and tears

into trying to see that
this young girl had a life.

We can't give her back her
mom, but I hope that she

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

than she would have.

That's important to me.

So that alone
makes it worth it.

Do I think that Rhonda
got perfect justice?

Absolutely not.

I think she got the justice
she would have wanted

for her daughter, that
her daughter was not

raised by the man
responsible for her death,

and also that it should
only be her daughter that

benefits from
the insurance money

due to her death,
not anybody else.

And I'm hopeful that her loved
ones saw that that result

was important.

Dardie and Carrie Rasmussen
deserve a ton of credit.

They are the ones
that blocked Steve

from getting his
hands on the money

and got the grand jury hearing,
and him indicted and all that.

So yes, I am grateful
to them for sure.

They really put a lot
of effort into all this

and really wanted
to see justice

for Rhonda and her
daughter, even though things

didn't turn out ideally.

After
Steve was sentenced,

he continued to do lots
and lots of TV appearances,

sit down at interviews, and his
story just continued to change.

The TV appearances suggest
a lack of-- of any kind

of remorse at all,
or even understanding

of the suffering of Rhonda,
of her family, of his daughter.

It illustrates somebody
who is utterly egocentric,

somebody who really
sees things purely

from his own
perspective, who is

prepared to turn
any circumstances

to his own advantage.

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.

And what happened to Rhonda
was-- is a footnote in--

in his big life story.

Today, 16 years
on from Rhonda's tragic death,

Jeff's memories of his
sister still shine bright.

It's hard to put
into words what

a phenomenal
individual that she was

and what an impact it's
had her being gone.

The last time I spoke
to Rhonda, she was at my house

with her daughter being
silly, goofy humor

and playing with the kids.

Rhonda was a great person.

We all loved her and she really
was the glue in our family.

What's important going
forward right now

is that people know
the truth, that Steve Nichols

is a dangerous person,
and that Rhonda's daughter

knows the full truth
about what happened.

But I feel almost
more importantly

to know how much Rhonda loved
her and was dedicated to her.

Rhonda loved her with
everything she had.

It was her life.

It was her anchor.

It was her newfound
purpose in life.

Ultimately, that's probably
the most valuable thing

that I could do to honor
Rhonda's memory,

is to be as active in her
daughter's life as I can.

I am by no means
a religious person,

but, you know, when you see
something glimmer for a second

or like a light bounce
off something or whatever,

or like you see a shiny object
and just for that split second,

you see that little, sort
of sharp edge of light

or glimmer or whatever.

And I like to tell
myself sometimes

that that's where she's at.

She's just right
there for a second.

Sometimes I let myself go
there and be sad about it.

But I also feel like,
you know, she's with me.

And so part of how I
deal with it is I just

try to honor Rhonda's memory.