D.A. SEEKING DEATH PENALTY NIEVES' ATTORNEY URGES LIFE IN PRISON.

Byline: Holly Edwards Staff Writer

SAN FERNANDO - Calling the murders of her four daughters ``horrendous, calculated and vengeful,'' prosecutors Monday urged jurors to recommend the death penalty for Sandi Dawn Nieves, showing her the same lack of mercy she showed her children.

``Some crimes are so outrageous, society demands the ultimate punishment simply because the defendant deserves it, the defendant has earned it and there is no other more appropriate punishment,'' Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman said during closing arguments at North Valley Superior Court. ``Justice demands that you impose the death penalty given the facts and circumstances of this case.''

But Nieves' public defender argued that life in prison would be the most appropriate penalty for his client.

He said Nieves was a loving mother who did her best to raise her son and four daughters after being abandoned by her ex-husbands and boyfriend.

After years of childhood abuse at the hands of her mother and further emotional abuse by the men in her life, Nieves finally suffered an emotional breakdown the night she killed her children and tried to kill herself in an arson fire, said Deputy Public Defender Howard Waco.

``Sandi Dawn Nieves was driven by a lack of love, a lack of compassion, a lack of hope and a lack of self-worth,'' he said. ``She drowned in her despair, and she took everything she ever was, is or ever will be on a dark journey, the same dark journey the District Attorney now wants you to take my client on.''

The case was sent late Monday to the jury, which will begin deliberations this morning.

On July 27, the same jury deliberated less than five hours before convicting Nieves of four counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances, one count of attempted murder and arson.

Officials say Nieves killed her daughters on July 1, 1998, in her Seco Canyon home by calling them into the kitchen for a slumber party. She waited for them to fall asleep, lighted several gasoline-fueled fires throughout the house, then ordered her children not to move as they slowly died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Killed in the fire were Jaqlene Marie Folden, 5; Kristl Dawn Folden, 7; Rashel Hollie Nieves, 11; and Nikolet Amber Nieves, 12.

David Nieves, then 14, survived the fire and testified against his mother during the criminal phase of her trial.

Displaying large posters of the girls, as well as a smaller of picture of their bodies after the fire, Silverman said Nieves' crimes were so horrendous they erased everything good she had done previously in her life.

``How do you show mercy to the merciless?'' Silverman asked the jury. ``Some crimes are so horrendous they define the person who committed them and wipe out virtually everything else about that person.''

Calling the jurors ``the conscience of the community,'' Silverman urged them to recommend the death penalty on behalf of the four little girls whose lives were taken from them, as well as the grieving family members who will never see the girls again.

Waco, however, told the jury that every life is precious, including Nieves' life. ``The District Attorney wants one more death to complete the tragedy,'' Waco said. ``But that won't protect society, it won't protect kids on the street, and it won't bring the children back. Revenge is the District Attorney's only motive, but Sandi would give her life to bring her children back.''