Meant to maim, not kill, man says

In court, defendant shows jurors how he set lover afire

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Matthew Wayne Nichols crouched in front of a Pulaski County jury Tuesday to show how he held his fiancee down, doused the North Little Rock woman with gasoline, then set her on fire with a lighter -- an act that killed her but was not murder, Nichols said.

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The flames were really an attempt to disfigure Jessie Renee "Nana" McFadden so badly that no other man would want her, Nichols testified at his trial Tuesday before Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen.

McFadden, 39, died later that same May 2013 night from a combination of the burns over 90 percent of her body, including her voice box, and suffocation from soot in her throat, according to medical testimony.

"I caused her death," Nichols said. "That's what happened. I'm sorry that it happened. I was in a frame of mind to make her undesirable to whoever she was stepping out with."

Nichols is accused of plotting McFadden's killing out of anger over her efforts to end their 21/2-year relationship and throw him out of her 1,200-square-foot home on Water Street.

At the request of the woman's family, prosecutors waived the death penalty and are seeking a life sentence.

But what Nichols is guilty of is second-degree murder or manslaughter, defense attorneys Lott Rolfe IV and Brett Qualls told jurors, arguing he'd acted in a sudden rage after she'd cruelly taunted him about being unfaithful and told him she didn't love him and that she wanted him gone.

The eight men and four women of the jury will convene at 9 a.m. today to begin deliberating in the capital-murder case.

Nichols testified that his relationship with McFadden had turned sexless and he believed the night of the argument that she had been sleeping around for some time.

He said he was enraged after she had taunted him that she had just been with another man, although she recanted and said she was "just playing," Nichols told the jury.

She was wearing clothes of a type he hadn't seen her in before, he said, a "hoochie-mama" outfit, which he described as "skin-tight clothes cut low showing a lot of cleavage and the imprint of the private areas."

He said he left the house, planning to leave the property, but the red gas can in his truck caught his eye. He took the fuel back inside and confronted McFadden with it, Nichols testified. He said he tripped McFadden as she ran from him, then poured gasoline on woman as she lay on the floor.

When he finally got the fire to burn McFadden like he wanted, she ignited with a "whoof" sound, Nichols told jurors. He repeated that description of her combustion three more times in his testimony, drawing out the syllable each time.

But McFadden, a mother and grandmother, burned in silence, he testified.

"She was quiet," he said. "She didn't yell or scream."

Nichols said McFadden didn't burn to his satisfaction at first, so he put more fuel on her. He said he was pouring fuel on her side and torso to produce scars that would show whenever she took her clothes off for another man.

"I leaned down over her and I poured the gas on her and I struck the lighter," Nichols said tearfully, his voice husky with emotion, as he was questioned by his attorneys. "She started rolling. The fire was going out. She was putting it out. I poured some more on her."

Nichols gave conflicting testimony about how many times he poured gas on McFadden, sometimes saying twice but also describing dousing her three times.

But McFadden didn't really catch fire like he wanted until she stood up, which caused the blaze to "whoof," he told jurors.

The burning woman then walked into the bathroom, he said, turned on the water and put out the flames.

Nichols said he saw her step out of the bathroom as he was driven from the home by smoke that choked him, telling jurors he'd been burned on his face and hands when McFadden had gone up in flames.

Nichols was emotional when questioned by his attorney, crying and struggling to breathe, but he bristled when chief deputy prosecutor John Johnson questioned the sincerity of that emotional display.

"Who are you crying for?" Johnson said, opening his cross-examination. "Who are those tears for? You've been in this courtroom all this day ... and you haven't shed a tear."

Nichols said he was crying for McFadden, himself and her family. Johnson held an autopsy photograph inches from the defendant's face and accused him of telling a self-serving story that ignored the testimony of two eyewitnesses to the fire.

Nichols' childhood friend, Franklin Hinton of Jacksonville and a Nichols neighbor, Angela Kay Yielding, both said they saw him throwing gas on the burning woman and described her screams.

"When you look at what you've done, you can only think about yourself," the prosecutor said.

Challenged by Johnson about his account of setting McFadden on fire, Nichols, 47, left the witness stand and got down on his knees before jurors to show how he'd held the 5-gallon gas can with one hand and held her down with the other before pouring the gas and setting her ablaze with a pocket lighter.

Prosecutors said that the most telling proof of Nichols' intentions was the testimony of Nichols' niece and McFadden's best friend, Terry Yancy.

Yancy said she twice overheard her uncle threaten to set the woman and her home on fire -- the first time weeks before the burning and the second in a phone call the evening McFadden was killed.

Pressed by Johnson, Nichols said he had never made that kind of threat, but he could not explain why Yancy would say that about him.

Metro on 08/27/2014