Overview
- Jurors found Nicholson guilty of three counts of first-degree murder with a multiple-murder special circumstance for the 2019 killings of his parents and their longtime housekeeper.
- The sanity phase began Thursday, with the defense bearing the burden to show a mental disease left Nicholson unable to understand the nature or wrongfulness of his acts.
- Defense counsel cites a schizoaffective disorder diagnosis, prior psychiatric holds, and a Feb. 5–11, 2019 hospitalization that ended in discharge the day the killings began.
- Prosecutors detailed a sequence in which Richard and Kim Nicholson were killed on Feb. 11, followed by housekeeper Maria Morse the next morning, after which Nicholson went on shopping trips and later called 911.
- A defense psychologist testified Nicholson believed his parents were plotting to kill him, while the prosecutor questioned why he returned home if he perceived a threat; testimony resumes Monday.