Copyright Los Angeles Times
A jury Thursday found a 34-year-old man who bludgeoned and repeatedly stabbed his parents and a longtime housekeeper inside their home in a gated community of Newport Beach was legally sane at the time of the killings. Camden Burton Nicholson was convicted Oct. 22 of three counts of special-circumstances murder with a sentencing enhancement of multiple murders. But because he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, the trial entered a second phase, with jurors determining whether he was legally insane at the time of the 2019 slayings. With the finding of sanity, Nicholson will face life in prison without the possibility of parole when he is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 19. If the jury had found he was legally insane, he would have faced an indefinite stay at a mental health facility. The burden of proof was on the defense, which made its case in a Santa Ana courtroom this week. Jurors had to decide the question by a preponderance of the evidence, a lower standard than reasonable doubt, the standard applied during the guilt phase. Jurors earlier this month concluded Nicholson killed his parents — 64-year-old Richard Nicholson and 61-year-old Kim Nicholson — on Feb. 11, 2019, then murdered 57-year-old housekeeper Maria Morse of Anaheim the following day. Nicholson’s attorney, Richard Cheung of the Orange County Public Defender’s Office, said the law required the defendant be found with a mental disease or defect, as his client did not understand the crime was legally or morally wrong. Cheung said three psychiatric experts concluded Nicholson wrongly believed his parents and his maid were part of a conspiracy to kill him and so acted in self-defense. One expert was hired by Cheung’s office, while the other two were appointed by a judge. One expert, however, testified for prosecutors that the defendant was malingering, or exaggerating, his psychiatric issues and was not legally insane at the time. “Yes, Camden understood three people were killed,” the defense attorney said. “But he was delusional, psychotic. ... He had this delusion his parents and housekeeper were in a conspiracy to kill him.” Nicholson thought that when his parents attempted to hospitalize him to help him, they were setting it up to have him poisoned, Cheung maintained. Part of the reason Nicholson was suspicious of the housekeeper was because she used a room deodorizer that triggered his seizures. Nicholson was also paranoid that his parents were tracking him, so when he would leave home and check into a motel he would continuously switch rooms, the defense offered. His parents would implore him to come home, telling him they loved him, but then try to persuade him to check into a hospital, triggering the defendant’s fear of the false conspiracy all over again, Cheung said. Forensic psychologist Lisa Grajewski testified that when Nicholson was in college “he was struggling” with suicidal ideation and consequently hospitalized and prescribed medication. Nicholson had “periods of compliance and non-compliance” with taking his medications, she said. Nicholson was also using steroids for low testosterone and cannabis “to self medicate” in addition to anti-psychotics, mood stabilizers and tranquilizers, Grajewski said. Senior Deputy District Atty. Dave Porter noted that Nicholson appeared to take steps to destroy evidence, such as a blood-stained jacket, and moved the housekeeper’s car about a mile away from the home to avoid detection. Richard Nicholson was seen in security footage driving back to his home in the gated community at 36 Palazzo about 12:45 p.m. the day of his death, Porter said during opening statements. Nicholson, who was “completely dependent on his parents,” met his father in the garage of the home and “stabbed him over and over again,” the prosecutor alleged. He placed his father’s body in a small bathroom and stuffed towels at the bottom of the door to keep blood from seeping out. When his mother came home about 10 minutes later, Nicholson struck her with a metal statue before repeatedly stabbing her. Investigators found clumps of Kim Nicholson’s hair at the scene, indicating she fought for her life during a struggle, Porter said. After the killings, Nicholson used his parents’ cars to drive to various stores and businesses. The following day, Morse, a “longtime housekeeper” for the family, arrived for work about 7:45 a.m. Nicholson repeatedly stabbed her and slit her throat before stuffing her into a large plastic bin, Porter said. He then went on a series of “shopping sprees,” spending $300 on marijuana at a dispensary and making stops at a drugstore and an adult novelty shop. Around 8:30 p.m., after returning home, Nicholson left again in his father’s car and drove to a Kaiser Permanente facility in Irvine, where he called 911 and said he had killed his parents in self-defense because they were trying to kill him, Porter said.
