A Colorado Springs mother convicted in 2008 of murdering her three children in a house fire might get a new trial after a judge ruled that prosecutors withheld key evidence that could have impacted the jury’s verdict.

Deborah Nicholls, whose conviction was overturned Saturday, is scheduled to be transferred to the El Paso County jail on Aug. 20 for a bond hearing, court records show.

In 2003, her children — 11-year-old Jay, 5-year-old Sophia and 3-year-old Sierra — died in a fire at their Village Seven home off North Carefree Circle. At trial, prosecutors said Nicholls talked her then-husband, Timothy, into setting the fire to get insurance money to pay off their drug debts.

Deborah and Timothy Nicholls were convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

In April, the 4th Judicial District Court found that the prosecution violated Deborah Nicholls’ constitutional right to a fair trial by suppressing evidence, known as a Brady violation.

The 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office is appealing the decision, spokesperson Kate Singh said.

“This office will continue to fight for justice for the three children who lost their lives in 2003. We will diligently defend the original verdicts, and we are prepared to retry the case, if deemed necessary by the Court of Appeals,” District Attorney Michael Allen said in a statement.

Prosecutors claimed that lab testing confirmed the presence of an accelerant called xylene in the fire debris, on the children’s clothes and on the clothes of Nicholls’ ex-husband, according to a news release from Nicholls’ attorney, Janene McCabe.

What didn’t get to the defense were communications and analysis by Colorado Bureau of Investigation analyst Tom Griffin, who reviewed the lab tests and concluded that CBI’s own 2003 testing found no ignitable liquids. He also said he would not have reported xylenes as indicative of an accelerant, unlike his colleague, Tom Netwal, who testified for the prosecution.

Griffin also noted that there was a potential contamination of samples used in one of the labs that reported positive results for ignitable liquids, according to the order overturning Nicholls’ conviction.

The prosecution also suppressed an email from then-prosecutor William Bain, who acknowledged that Netwal had admitted he probably would not have reported xylenes at all had he not known about the can of Goof Off, a professional strength cleaner, submitted with the samples.

Griffin also consulted with nationally recognized forensic chemist Reta Newman, who determined that the xylenes found in the samples were products of pyrolysis, a natural burning of materials.

Prosecutors argued that Griffin’s notes were created solely to assist them in trial preparation and that the notes contained no new information, facts or exculpatory material. They also argued that this made the notes not discoverable, meaning they weren’t required to turn it over to the defense.

However, Senior Judge Michael Mullins wrote that the prosecution “overlooked” the “direct impact” the notes and Bain’s email had on the credibility of key trial evidence.

“Clearly, based on the evidence at trial, the suppressed evidence is exculpatory, and it undermines the prosecution’s material witness and supports the Defendant’s expert analysis,” Mullins wrote.

Mullins ordered that Nicholls should receive a new trial. Her conviction was overturned without prejudice, meaning a trial would not be considered double jeopardy.

Singh, the spokeswoman for the DA’s office, did not say if any of the involved prosecutors faced disciplinary actions.

“This case arose from events that occurred 23 years ago — under a different administration. Since then, the office has experience significant changes in leadership, personnel, policies, training and technology. Discovery practices have also evolved substantially, and prosecutors today receive training on the sophisticated technologies and processes required to meet modern discovery obligations,” she said.

More about the case

Nicholls, 59, was arrested Nov. 28, 2007. Long before her arrest, prosecutors thought she was the mastermind behind the fire that killed her children, The Gazette previously reported.

When the fire broke out at the family’s home, Nicholls was at a bar.

She told The Gazette in 2003, shortly after investigators with the Colorado Springs Fire Department ruled the fire an arson: “Maybe there isn’t an answer and it’s just a horrible, tragic accident. Nobody killed my children, especially my husband.”

Witnesses testified that the couple were in deep financial trouble because of their methamphetamine addiction.

According to Mullins’ order, the evidence used by prosecutors during Deborah Nicholls’ trial fell into three categories.

The forensic findings, Mullins said, played a “crucial role” in establishing the cause and intentional nature of the fire.

The second category was centered on the confession made by Timothy Nicholls, which included details of the crime and directly implicated his then-wife.

The third category focused on Deborah Nicholls’ behavior following the deaths, particularly how she responded to the tragedy and her apparent eagerness to pursue insurance benefits. The actions were considered relevant in establishing motive and intent.

Mullins compared these categories to a three-legged stool.

“A three-legged stool is inherently balanced; however, if one leg is absent, diminished, or compromised, the entire structure becomes unstable and may collapse,” he wrote in his order.