Jury continues to decide death penalty or life in prison for murderer

UPDATE 6:33 p.m.: The judge wrapped up Monday’s session after hearing from three witness’ total.

The court began again for the day around 1:30 p.m. after taking a lunch recess. It started off with a leader read aloud from Jeffrey Nichols’ childhood friend, Sgt. Christopher Harrison who described Nichols as “never a straight A student,” but “overall had pure intentions.”

The courtroom continued with its last witness of the day, Jeffrey Nichols’ father by adoption, Sherman Nichols.

Sherman Nichols was also a pastor at a church where they lived in Joplin, Missouri. He shared multiple stories about Jeffrey’s life and his relationship with him when they met him at 10-years-old.

The Nichols family already had two children before they adopted Jeffrey, Jenny Nichols was 13-years-old and Andy Nichols was 8-years-old when the family adopted Jeffrey. Sherman said it was a family decision to bring Jeffrey into the family and they visited him often at Turnaround Ranch, the facility he was kept in, which Sherman described as “not a happy place.”

Jeffrey had gone through the foster care system and was in a new home about every six months, Sherman said.

He said his wife was a foster child and prior to their marriage they had always wanted to adopt a child in the future. Jeffrey was introduced to the Nichols family because they knew the Nichols were wanting to adopt, he was introduced to them as a “troubled child,” Sherman said.

“Here is this little skinny kid who’s had an unfair past, who hasn’t been given the building blocks,” Sherman described as his first impression of Jeffrey.

Sherman also described Jeffrey as morally and emotionally immature, but seemed of average maturity when compared to other kids his age. He also said he was intelligent but lacked family and social skills.

Prior to adoption, Jeffrey Nichols’ name was James Eugene Menifee, but was known as JJ. When Jeffrey was adopted into the Nichols family, he was given the opportunity to change his name and he did – Jeffrey J Nichols. Sherman said Jeffrey chose his new first name after his adopted uncle’s first name.

Sherman Nichols said the family had to go through multiple classes to become foster parents and to ultimately adopt Jeffrey.

Jeffrey Nichols was brought into the Nichols’ home in 2001 and was officially adopted in 2002.

Sherman said when Jeffrey was brought to their home he only had a black trash bag filled with everything he owned. He also said they bought him new shoes and clothes and everything he needed, which he took great care of and was very meticulous about his new items. Sherman also said Jeffrey was on three different medications at the time. Over a two-year span, his adopted parents said they were able to get him off all of the medications and said he was ok without it at school. They noticed adderall, one of his medications, made him depressed.

“He bore a stigma of a bad child,” Sherman said. They had a goal of getting Jeffrey into ‘regular classes’ within one to two years of starting at his new school and he accomplished that goal.

Sherman was asked about Jeffrey’s counseling. He said he remained in counseling until he was at least 16-years-old.

“Jeff did have trouble controlling impulses and struggled with that,” Sherman said, he had angry responses. He said his angry impulses were ever completely resolved but he made “good progress.”

Sherman also mentioned that the family used various forms of punishment for all three of their children including corporal punishment, restriction and grounding.

Sherman said the only information they had of Jeffrey’s birth mother was that she was in trouble with the law often and she had a reputation of substance abuse. He said Jeffrey and Mrs. Sherman ran into his birth mother at the mall once. He also noted that Jeffrey was in an abusive home until he was 6-years-old, that is when he entered the foster care system.

Sherman said after Jeffrey’s 16th birthday, they started to notice some changes. He asked to be placed at College Heights Christian School because of peer pressure he was experiencing at Carl Junction High School.

Sherman said they enrolled him into the private school and that is when he started to get into drugs like marijuana.He said Jeffrey’s defiance became unpredictable and his outbursts were more difficult to manage. Sherman also said he started to care less about his hygiene and appearance.

“Several things added up that point to that turning point,” Sherman said.

Jeffrey was expelled from College Heights Christian School a few months after starting and was sent back to Carl Junction High School. He did not graduate high school, but later received his GED.

Sherman began to describe Jeffrey’s multiple run-ins with law enforcement. Sherman said him and his wife would have to call the police to come and get Jeffrey. He had committed burglary to get drugs, used his parent’s church van to commit crimes and was later incarcerated with the state.

Jeffrey would break windows and sometimes threaten others at this time in his life. Sherman said he became impulsive after taking drugs.

Sherman said his family tried several attempts at rehabilitation, including six different facilities across Missouri.

Jeffrey was admitted into a faith-based rehabilitation center where they found a “cocktail of drugs,” in his system including huffing, propellants, xanax, marijuana and methamphetamine. This facility did not allow tobacco, but Jeffrey couldn’t keep it out of his system so he could not be admitted after a while.

The Friday prior to Easter Sunday 2013, Sherman called Jeffrey’s parole officer and said he should not be released that day. The officer said he would pass on the information. Jeffrey was released that day and committed the murder of Sunday.

Sherman said he has been in contact with Jeffrey since his was incarcerated for this murder. He said in the last year to year and a half he has had what he calls a “change of heart” from being self-focused to appreciating what his family his still doing for him and has apologized to his adopted mom for “putting her through this.”

The judge said he expects the jury to hear from one witness that will last all day Tuesday, and said the case should wrap up on Wednesday morning

ORIGINAL 1:04 p.m.:The jury heard from two witnesses before noon Monday morning.

Dr. Ruben Gur, a neuropsychologist from the University of Pennsylvania took the stand Monday morning.

He had conducted a PET scan and MRI of Jeffrey Nichols’ brain, which showed his frontal lobe was damaged. Gur said the frontal lobe is where the decision making happens.

Dr. Gur also believed Nichols is an impulsive person. Prior to Monday, Dr. Gur had never met Nichols, but strictly studied the images of his brain.

Dr. Gur said the damage to Nichols’ head is most likely from multiple hits to the head, which could have come from playing sports or being a kid.

“In a situation where a crime occurred, this could be the cause,” Dr. Gur said, speaking of Nichols’ brain injury and the 2013 murder.

Dr. Gur said it is difficult to show cause and effect when it comes to traumatic brain injuries, but said people with brain injuries can act impulsively.

Nichols’ former 9th and 10th grade homeroom teacher, Christina Alford took the stand. Alford was Nichols’ teacher in 2006 and 2007 at Carl Junction High School in Carl Junction, Missouri, outside of Joplin.

Alford said she was shocked when she heard Nichols was connected to this murder. She described Nichols as a typical 15 or 16-year-old boy, not able to sit still, but always respected her. She said she never had to write him up for misbehaving.

Alford also described Nichols as the student who always sat in the back and was there for the social aspect instead of the learning aspect of school. She said he had friends and seemed to get along with other kids.

She described a time when Nichols came to her classroom a few years later to visit. Alford said she told him he was taller, happier and was involved in a faith-based program for at-risk youth. She said he seemed to be doing really well.

When Nichols was in her class, his older sister Jenny Nichols would come and ask Alford how he was doing in her class. It wasn’t until the first time she came in that Alford knew there was a difficult home situation.

Jenny Nichols is in the courtroom Monday.

One last witness for the day is expected to take the stand after lunch recess Monday.