The Slumber Party

Sandi Nieves lived in Santa Clarita, California, with her four daughters, Nikolet, 12, Rashel, 11, Kristl, 7, and Jaqlene, 5, and her 14-year-old son. In 1998 she was going through a bitter divorce from her second husband and was under heavy financial strain. That spring he had filed to undo his adoption of her three older children, and he refused to pay their support.

On the night of June 30, 1998, she had the girls sleep together on the kitchen floor, calling it a slumber party. In the early hours of July 1 she poured gasoline through the house and set it alight. The smoke alarm had been disabled. All four girls died of smoke inhalation. Nieves and her son survived. Investigators found letters she had written, including a note to her estranged husband that was postmarked the day of the fire, and her son testified against her.

In 2000 a Los Angeles County jury convicted Nieves of four counts of first-degree murder, along with arson and the attempted murder of her son, and she was sentenced to death. On May 3, 2021, the California Supreme Court upheld the convictions but reversed the death sentence, ruling that the trial judge had repeatedly belittled the defense lawyers and questioned defense witnesses in a hostile way. The court returned the penalty question to the trial court.