AUTHORITIES ARREST MOM IN 4 DEATHS.

Byline: Sylvia L. Oliande Daily News Staff Writer

In a tragedy that stunned one of America's safest cities, a single mother was arrested Thursday, accused of killing her four young daughters just days before she was due in court in a child custody case.

Sandi Nieves, 34, remained hospitalized under police guard as investigators prepared a case to take to the district attorney, Los Angeles County sheriff's investigators said.

If charges are filed, Nieves will be arraigned either Monday or Tuesday in Newhall Municipal Court on four counts of murder in the deaths of her daughters - Nikolet Amber, 12; Rashel Hollie, 11; Kristl Dawn, 7, and Jaqlene Marie, 5.

``I believe they are with God now, and I believe they are angels now,'' said neighbor Lynn Castro, who placed a wreath of flowers at the front door of the family's Santa Clarita home. ``I just feel for them and I hope they didn't feel any pain.''

Homicide investigators said that when they responded to Nieves' emergency call at 1:16 p.m. Wednesday, they found smoldering fires and a container of ``accelerant'' in the rented house. The oven door was open, its pilot light out and natural gas filled the kitchen.

On the kitchen floor lay the pajama-clad bodies of the girls, wrapped in blankets and sleeping bags as if at a slumber party.

Nieves calmly met paramedics at the door, telling them there were ``four victims'' inside. Nieves and her 14-year-old son, Ferdinand, who goes by his middle name, David, were treated for smoke inhalation as detectives began their investigation.

Nieves and her second husband, David Folden, whom she divorced in August, were due Monday in a Riverside County court for a custody trial to determine ``the custody, visitation and legal status'' of the girls, officials said. The hearing was taken off the court calendar at the request of the attorneys.

On Thursday, as investigators pored over evidence collected under a search warrant, a portrait emerged of a troubled family.

The suspect was 19 when she married her first husband, Ferdinand Nieves, in Las Vegas, Nev., on April 10, 1983, according to court documents. The couple had their first child, Ferdinand David Nieves, in June 1984, followed by Nikolet in September 1985, and Rashel in September 1986.

By that time, the couple was living in Altus, Okla., where Ferdinand Nieves was stationed in the Air Force. The couple bought a house there, and had a $22,000 mortgage.

Soon after the birth of her third child, Sandi Nieves filed for divorce, citing incompatibility. A divorce decree was filed April 24, 1987, in Oklahoma's Jackson County Court, and became final that October. The court gave Sandi Nieves full custody of the three children and granted the father liberal visitation. It also ordered Ferdinand Nieves to pay alimony of $100 a month for a year, plus child support of $450 a month.

He paid support for only two months, according to a lawsuit filed in December 1987 by his ex-wife, who by that time had remarried. In documents filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Pomona, Sandi Folden - as she was then identified in court documents - said Ferdinand, then stationed in West Germany, owed her $2,750 for support from July through November.

The lawsuit said Sandi Folden, who was living in Chino Hills, was in ``dire financial circumstances and has not sufficient income with which to pay counsel fees or costs of suit.'' In fact, she filed documents with the court to represent herself in June 1988.

The documents do not indicate the outcome of the lawsuit.

Sandi Folden had two daughters with her second husband, who subsequently adopted her two older girls, according to sheriff's investigators. The couple was living in the Riverside County city of Perris when they divorced in August 1997. According to a temporary custody agreement, David Folden was granted visitation three weekends a month while the mother maintained physical custody of the girls.

A neighbor of Sandi Nieves said he saw Folden waiting outside to pick up the youngest girl last weekend, and that he never saw the man enter the house on any occasion.

In divorce papers, the couple exchanged allegations of being too rough on the children but the documents showed that neither law enforcement nor child protective services intervened.

Nieves accused her husband of grabbing their then 4-year-old daughter's arm and pulling her elbow out of the socket in a declaration filed for the divorce. But Folden countered that one of the other children had pulled the girl's arm.

Folden accused his wife of using a wooden spoon to swat the children and of biting a daughter after the girl had bitten another child. Nieves argued that her approach to disciplining the children was more consistent and appropriate than Folden's.

The couple signed mutual restraining orders as part of the divorce, agreeing not to harass each other. Neither violated the orders, court records show.

Court documents also show that the major issue between the couple was keeping Folden's adult son from a previous marriage, David Maynard Folden, away from the children because of his continued involvement with drugs.

On Thursday, one of Folden's Perris neighbors said Folden was devastated by Wednesday's events.

``The kids were his life,'' Phil Rogers said.

Deanne Tilton Durfee, executive director of the Los Angeles County Inter-Agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect, said it is common for violence to occur in families while members are facing something as stressful as a custody hearing.

``There's a very clear nexus between conflict involving parents and fatal abuse of children. Children often get caught in the cross-fire,'' Durfee said.

``The most precious thing to some people are their children. Sometimes their attitude is, if I can't have them, nobody can.''

Nieves and her children moved from Perris to the single-story Santa Clarita house in the spring, and neighbors said the family kept to itself.

``She wouldn't talk to anyone,'' said neighbor Jim Jernigan. ``I'd try to wave to her just to be nice, but no way. She'd look the other way, take the kids and they went inside. They were never really outside for more than five minutes.''

The girls attended Santa Clarita Elementary School and Arroyo Seco Junior High School.

The deaths were a shock for residents in Santa Clarita, ranked the nation's fourth-safest city by the FBI. Officials said that while people are emotionally affected by the crime, it would likely not disturb them in the way a random crime might.

``I don't think people are concerned for their own safety in this case because it wasn't an outside intruder, it was a member of their own family,'' said Lt. Larry Gump of the Santa Clarita sheriff's station.

``But I'm sure they're all upset about this.''

Daily News Staff Writers Patricia Farrell Aidem and Lee Condon and The Riverside Press-Enterprise contributed to this story.

CAPTION(S):

6 Photos

PHOTO (1--Color) Jaqlene Marie Folden

(2--Color) Kristl Dawn Folden

(3--Color) Nikolet Amber Nieves-Folden

(4--Color) Rashel Hollie Nieves-Folden

(5) David Nieves

(6) Flowers rest at the Santa Clarita home where four girls died Wednesday. Their mother, Sandi Nieves, was arrested Thursday in connection with the deaths.

Hans Gutknecht/Daily News