Man convicted of killing parents and family housekeeper in California
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A 34-year-old California man has been convicted of killing his parents and the family’s maid in a violent attack at their Newport Beach home.
A jury on Wednesday found Camden Burton Nicholson guilty of three counts of first-degree murder and multiple counts of murder that resulted in the deaths of his parents, Richard Nicholson, 64, and Kim Nicholson, 61, and the family’s maid, Maria Morse, 57, of Anaheim, who had worked for the family for years.
The killings took place over two days in February 2019 at the Nicholsons’ gated community home, according to prosecutors. Prosecutors laid out a detailed sequence in their opening statements.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Dave Porter told jurors that surveillance video showed Richard Nicholson returning home around 12:45 p.m. the day he died. According to the Orange County Register. In the garage, Camden Nicholson confronted his father after his parents urged him to seek treatment for mental health and addiction issues.
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A California man was convicted years after killing his parents and the family maid in their Newport Beach home. (Getty Images/Orange County District Attorney’s Office)
Porter said Nicholson, described as “completely dependent on his parents”, stabbed his father “repeatedly”. He then carried his father’s body into a small bathroom and closed the door with a towel to catch the blood.
When his mother returned home a short time later, Nicholson hit her with a metal statue and stabbed her multiple times, killing her in the garage.
“There was so much blood that the defendant tried to absorb it with a bag of flour,” Porter told jurors. Investigators also found strands of hair at the scene, suggesting Kim Nicholson was fighting for her life.
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Yachts and other vessels can be seen in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach, California, on April 27, 2024. (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
When Morse arrived at work the next morning, Nicholson stabbed him multiple times and slit his throat before placing his body in a large plastic bin in the kitchen pantry, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors said Nicholson took his parents’ car and went on a spending spree after the murders, buying hundreds of dollars worth of items from a marijuana dispensary in Santa Ana and purchasing sex toys.
The next night, around 8:30 p.m. on February 13, 2019, Nicholson went to the Kaiser Permanente facility in Irvine, where he called 911 and claimed that he killed his parents in self-defense because he believed they were trying to kill him.
When Newport Beach police officers arrived at the home for a welfare check, they found the home completely covered in blood and all three victims suffering from multiple stab wounds.
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Aerial photo of Corona del Mar, an affluent coastal neighborhood of Newport Beach in Orange County, California. (halbergman/Getty Images)
Nicholson’s defense attorneys argued that he had been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and should be found not guilty because he was insane.
Defense attorney Richard Cheung said Nicholson’s mental health problems began around 2012, when he was hospitalized under psychiatric supervision and treated with antipsychotic medications during a mission at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Florida, the Register reported.
The defense said Nicholson later lived independently in Colorado in 2017, where he began hormone therapy, stopped taking his medications and again experienced sights and sounds.
In December 2018 and early February 2019, Nicholson was admitted to mental health facilities; His lawyers said it showed that Nicholson was delusional and unreachable by his family, which led to the murders.
The mental health phase of the trial began Thursday to determine whether Nicholson was legally insane at the time of the murders. The outcome will decide whether he will remain in prison for life without parole or be committed to a state mental hospital.
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Fox News Digital has reached out to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office and Nicholson’s legal team for comment.
Stepheny Price covers crimes including missing persons, murders and immigration crime. Send story tips to stepheny.price@fox.com.
