HEARING SET FOR DEATH BY FIRE CASE; DEFENSE WANTS ACCUSED WOMAN'S SON TO TESTIFY.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

Ten months after four sisters died in a smoky house fire in Santa Clarita, prosecutors are preparing their case against Sandi Dawn Nieves, the mother accused of killing the girls last summer.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for next Tuesday in North Valley Superior Court to determine whether there is enough evidence to warrant Nieves, 34, standing trial on four murder charges.

Meanwhile, a debate continued Tuesday between the defense and the prosecution over whether the woman's 14-year-old son, David Nieves, should appear in court. Deputy District Attorney Kenneth Barshop said that sheriff's homicide detectives can take the stand in David's place to recount what the boy told them, under the terms of a 1990 voter-approved state ballot measure.

Deputy Public Defender Howard Waco, who is representing Nieves, wants to be able to question the boy about what happened July 1 in the rented house on Cherry Creek Drive.

If the defense serves David Nieves with a subpoena to testify in the case, Barshop said he would ask the judge to quash that motion. ``The law doesn't allow the defense to call him unless there's a sufficient offer of proof as to what he'll testify to,'' he said.

``The boy doesn't need to testify. If he's not required to testify, then why put him through it?'' the prosecutor added. ``It has nothing to do with whether the boy wants to testify or not. I'm not going to call him as a witness.''

During the preliminary hearing, homicide detectives will recount what the boy told them the day his sisters died and the following day. ``That will be part of the evidence that will be presented,'' Barshop said.

``He was in the home that evening (but) he doesn't say that he saw (Sandi Nieves) light the fire,'' Barshop added.

Nieves, also charged with arson and attempted murder, stands accused of dousing her home with an accelerant and then setting a fire that killed daughters Jaqlene Marie Folden, 5, Kristl Dawn Folden, 7, Rashel Hollie Nieves, 11, and Nikolet Amber Nieves, 12.

Prosecutors filed special circumstances on the case, which could carry the death penalty, because of the multiple deaths. Coroner's autopsies showed that the four girls died of smoke inhalation.

Since the fire, David has been living in Riverside County with his father, Fernando Nieves. Barshop said in court proceedings several months ago that the teen wants nothing to do with his mother and is afraid of her.

Commissioner Gerald Richardson, who has been hearing the case, will remove himself from the proceedings and transfer the matter to a Superior Court judge for the preliminary hearing, Waco said. Richardson made that move after viewing 13 hours of videotapes shot by a television crew that was trailing sheriff's homicide detectives the day the girls died.

The defendant, meanwhile, remains held without bail at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown Los Angeles.

The defense also has filed complaints with the court over Nieves' privacy rights. ``Her mail unlawfully has been opened by the Sheriff's Department, both the mail she sent to me and the mail I sent to her,'' Waco said in recent months.

``You have the same (Sheriff's) Department opening her mail as investigating her (in the murder case), and that's illegal,'' Waco said.

``The mail going in (to the jails) is opened routinely to see that there are no narcotics. Anything marked `legal mail' is not supposed to be opened for any reason,'' Waco said.