ARSON TRIAL TESTIMONY NIEVES FORBADE SEEING KIDS, EX SAYS.

Byline: Jesse Hiestand Staff Writer

SAN FERNANDO - An ex-husband of accused killer Sandi Nieves testified Monday that she used threats to force him to relinquish contact with their three children, two of whom later died in a house fire she is charged with setting.

Fernando L. Nieves, 36, said the final blowup in their rocky relationship came in May 1997, about a year before the fire, when he received a letter from his ex-wife, warning him to stay away from their children.

``As far as you're concerned, I and the children have fallen off the face of the Earth - do not look for us,'' Fernando Nieves testified the letter said.

Yet in a contradictory move, he said, Sandi Nieves then sent him a manila envelope containing life insurance policies, photos, a will and another letter.

``It was kind of a shock. After all this time of trying to see the kids, she says, `If anything happens to me, I want you to have the kids,' '' Fernando Nieves told the San Fernando Superior Court jury.

Prosecutors contend Sandi Nieves, 36, killed four of her five children as revenge on Fernando Nieves and her other ex-husband, David Folden.

At the time of the fire, Fernando Nieves said, his ex-wife was furious that Folden was moving to reverse his adoption of Fernando Nieves' three children and cut off support to all five of the youngsters.

Nieves faces the death penalty on four counts of murder with special circumstances.

She maintains she does not know how the fire started in her Santa Clarita house on July 1, 1998, killing Nikolet Amber Nieves, 12; Rashel Hollie Nieves, 11; Kristl Dawn Folden, 7; and Jaqlene Marine Folden, 5.

Her oldest child, David Nieves, then 14, survived the fire and testified against his mother last week.

Fernando Nieves said he divorced his high school sweetheart in 1987 and rarely saw their children until 1993, when she asked him to relinquish his parental rights.

``If you don't sign, then we'll go into a larger scale of battle in the courts,'' Fernando Nieves recounted her threat to him.

Fernando Nieves said he reluctantly gave up custody, and the threats ebbed, although he was told not to have any contact with the kids. Even birthday cards sent them were returned by their mother, he said.

``I was told not to bother them, not to come around, or I would be arrested,'' he said.

Then in May 1996, he said he was abruptly allowed to resume contact with the children. During that time, he remembered running the children through fire drills so they would know how to escape a house fire.

Fernando Nieves said he learned of the fire through television reports that four children had been killed in Santa Clarita, where he knew they were living. What he hoped was coincidence soon turned to horror when he saw his ex-wife and oldest son being led from the house by paramedics.

He said he rushed to visit David in the hospital.

``One of the first things he asked me was, `Why am I still alive, Dad? Why am I not dead, too?' ''

Breaking into tears, Fernando Nieves testified: ``I told him that he was there to help me and the rest of the family to survive. I told him, there was a reason God spared you. There is a reason for everything.''