Death sentence for Santa Clarita mother who killed 4 children

SAN FERNANDO, Calif. - A 36-year-old mother who killed four of her children in a 1998 arson fire was sentenced Friday to death.

Sandi Dawn Nieves will be transferred to the state's death row for female inmates at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge L. Jeffrey Wiatt's ruling upheld a jury's death sentence recommendation in August.

The Santa Clarita woman was convicted July 27 of four counts of murder with special circumstances, the attempted murder of a son who survived, and one count of arson.

Prosecutors said the July 1, 1998, fire she set in her suburban Los Angeles home was an act of revenge against her two ex-husbands. She was arrested the next day.

The bodies of Jaqlene Marie Folden, 5, Kristl Dawn Folden, 7, Rashel Holly Nieves, 11, and Nikolet Amber Nieves, 12, were found in pajamas, tucked in sleeping bags. Her son, David, then 13, suffered smoke inhalation.

The killings occurred shortly before the mother was due in court to negotiate custody of the two youngest children.

During an earlier sentencing hearing before the jury, Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman said Nieves should be shown ''the same compassion she showed her own children.''

Prosecutors said Nieves gathered the children for a slumber party in the kitchen and told them to stay put as she set the house on fire. Firefighters were summoned by the mother's call reporting a fire at her home.

Nieves, who has not apologized, covered her face with a large sheet of paper during Friday's proceedings. Sobbing, she made a brief but barely audible statement to the court.

Her death penalty will be appealed automatically to the state Supreme Court.

Deputy Public Defender Howard C. Waco said Nieves was trying to commit suicide at the time and was so distraught she didn't know what she was doing.

He called Nieves ''basically a good woman ... who on one desperate evening went off the deep end.''

He was hopeful her death sentence would be overturned.

Evidence showing her diminished mental state, including a brain scan showing a physical abnormality, was barred from the trial, Waco said. Testimony from a neuropsychologist who found that Nieves had severe mental problems was limited during trial and barred from the penalty phase, he said.

''This cheapens the death penalty by giving it to a desperate mother who lost her self-worth and willingness to live,'' he said. ''If it wasn't so serious, it would be a comical joke.''