Kaysville man also faces charges in Cache man's death
Deseret Morning News
Published: July 24, 2003 12:00 a.m.
LOGAN — A Kaysville man was charged with capital murder Wednesday, just one day after prosecutors filed the same charge against his girlfriend in the slaying of a Logan man.
Court records suggest the couple, Tamara Rhinehart and Craig Duncan Nicholls, lured Rhinehart's ex-husband, Michael J. Boudrero, to a North Logan residence where he was shot and killed earlier this month.
"This appears to be the classic definition of a cold-blooded murder," Cache County Attorney George Daines said. "There's no sign of a struggle."
The motive for killing Boudrero may have been a life-insurance policy taken out for the longtime Cache Valley plumber. Police found the policy in Rhinehart's Clearfield apartment, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in 1st District Court. The policy was apparently for $50,000, and investigators have found several other potential policies or policy applications for higher amounts, Daines said.
Rhinehart, 44, remains in the Cache County Jail without bail after 1st District Judge Clint Judkins ruled Wednesday that she was indigent and would need a public defender.
Nicholls, a 39-year-old South African national, was expected to be transferred to the Cache County Jail sometime Wednesday night or this morning after being held in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.
Police arrested Rhinehart and Nicholls at the woman's Clearfield apartment Monday night without incident, Daines said.
Family members had suspected foul play as soon as Boudrero was reported missing July 9. He was last seen July 8 when he told his mother he was going to meet with someone in North Logan to discuss a plumbing job.
"We knew something was up because he just didn't come home," Boudrero's 27-year-old son, Chris Boudrero, said Wednesday following Rhinehart's court hearing. "We thought the worst."
Chris Boudrero joined several family members at the court hearing, including Michael Boudrero's mother and sister.
Rhinehart was escorted into the courtroom wearing navy jail pants and a shirt, with her wrists and ankles handcuffed. She spoke only a few times during her brief appearance. The judge ordered her to appear again Monday, where she will likely be appointed a public defender chosen from a list of lawyers qualified to work on capital cases.
Rhinehart's 20-year-old son, Shea Croshaw, was the only member of Rhinehart's family to attend the proceedings.
Outside the courtroom, he struggled to articulate his feelings on the charges against his mother.
"I'm here to lend any support that I can. She's my mother," he said.
Croshaw spoke with Boudrero's family members both before and after the hearing. He characterized his mother's relationship during her 10-year marriage to Boudrero as "generally healthy."
According to court documents, however, Rhinehart complained to a confidential police informant that her ex-husband was late in paying alimony. She also told the informant that Boudrero withheld child support money from her by working "scab jobs," court documents stated.
"Everything was about money to her," Chris Boudrero countered. "I think she'd do anything for money."
Rhinehart told the informant she "knew how to get Mr. Boudrero out of the house to look at a 'scab job' at a construction site, consistent with how the homicide was committed," court documents stated.
On one occasion, Rhinehart told the informant, "Well, plan A is going to happen soon," court documents stated. When the informant asked Rhinehart what she meant, the woman replied, "You know he's going to be gone," court documents stated. Rhinehart also told the informant on other occasions that she would have her boyfriend kill Boudrero, according to court records.
Nicholls matched the description of a man seen on a Brigham City Wal-Mart surveillance video purchasing a phone card on July 8 that was later used to call Boudrero's cell phone three times that same day between 5:30 p.m. and 8:50 p.m.
Boudrero told his mother July 8 he was going to North Logan to discuss a potential plumbing job. He left his mother's house about 8 p.m. and was last seen alive by workers near the North Logan residence, 2771 N. 1400 East, where he was found dead three days later, court documents stated. Police found Boudrero's body on July 11 locked in a storage room under the front porch of the unfinished house with bullet wounds in his chest and back, court documents stated. It appeared he had been shot and then dragged to the storage room, court documents stated. Police lifted fingerprints from the scene and a shoeprint from someone stepping in Boudrero's blood, according to court documents.
Investigators had not yet recovered the murder weapon, Daines said. However, in addition to murder, Nicholls was also charged with possession of a firearm by a restricted person, a third-degree felony. Nicholls' criminal history includes convictions for theft, forgery, shoplifting and simple assault, Daines said.
Investigators have evidence that Nicholls obtained the firearm through a third party but Daines would not comment if the weapon was in police custody or whether it matched the murder weapon.
Nicholls is still awaiting a court date on his charges. Daines said it was possible his office could be filing more counts against Rhinehart in connection with the insurance applications found in her apartment.
Meanwhile, the 9- and 13-year-old sons born to Rhinehart and Boudrero during their 10-year marriage are now in Division of Child and Family Services custody, agency spokeswoman Carol Sisco said. A custody hearing originally set for Wednesday for the two boys, ages 13 and 9, was rescheduled for Monday, she said.
If convicted, Nicholls and Rhinehart could face execution, though Daines said it was too early to say if prosecutors would seek the death penalty.
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I will continue on, after I picked the boys up from Shondell.
As I drove back home with the boys, there was a million things going through my mind. I still didn’t quite understand the fullness of what Craig had done, but I knew it was serious. The boys asked me a few questions about when they would see Dad again etc, but they were pretty oblivious to the big picture.
At the pool party, the kids played and the adults talked. My cell phone rang constantly, with numbers I had never seen. Every person I knew, and that Craig knew, was calling me to find out the details. In those days we paid for minutes used on our cell phones. My bill came to over $2000 that month. I called Sprint and explained to them what had happened and they DROPPED the whole bill for me!! As much as I hate Sprint now, I will always be grateful to them for doing that for me.
I just asked Rocco if he remembers that day and he said no. He remembers his birthday party at the pool, and he remembers seeing Craigs mugshot on TV, but not on the same day. That comes as a relief to me.
The crazy part about this, is, I have NEVER sat down with my boys and discussed this whole event. There were moments I remember where one of the boys would be having a bad day, and I would sit down with them on my bed and tell them I understand, and we would cry together for a few minutes…..but I couldn't talk about it. As soon as the words came to my mouth I would get very emotional, and shut up quickly. I never wanted my boys to see me weak. I needed to be their rock, I would not let them see me crumble. They needed to rely on me and know that no matter what happened in our lives, I would always be there for them. Since starting this blog, I have found I can talk more to them. But it has taken me 13 years of silence to get to this point.
We were living in a small apartment in South Jordan. It had 3 bedrooms. Wil and Doug were a little older, so I gave them each a room. Richie shared my room and Rocco slept in the living room. He actually loved it. His black kitty would sleep on his stomach, and he had all his important things around him (like his pokemon cards) and he was a happy camper (literally) in the living room. A few years later we moved into a condo where Rocco had his own bedroom. He still insisted on sleeping on the floor and would not let me put a bed into his room. Cute boy.
But, this Tuesday night was different. None of us wanted to be alone. Both Rocco and Rich slept in my room, Rocco on the floor of course, Rich in the bed with me. I put a Spa CD into my CD player, and we listened to it to go to sleep. But I couldn’t lie down. I couldn’t turn out the light. I sat up against the wall, with the light on, staring into space, all night. Every night. For I don’t know how many weeks, seemed like months. I felt that if I lay down I would be vulnerable. I wouldn’t allow myself to be vulnerable. I had to stay strong. But there was another part to this that no one else knew about. I FINALLY felt SAFER than I had in a year! I had a lot of people checking up on me, making sure I was OK, but they didn’t know how bad things had been between Craig and I over the last year, so even though I was horrified and shocked and devastated for the boys, I felt a sense of peace. I won’t be getting harassing calls and demands every day anymore. That part felt very, very relieving. I had a lot of mixed emotions.
A lot happened this week that Craig was arrested. So I am just going to type it all and hopefully it will make sense.
The next day the detectives asked me to go and pick up our van. We had an astro mini van that Craig had taken to Tamara’s house on that Monday night when they were arrested. So now the van was parked at her place and I needed to go and get it, That was a surreal event on it’s own. To see her place and know that my boys had been there many times while she and Craig made their plans. It was so eery. I still have the detectives business card that was on the van window, and he had written “Do Not Tow” on it.
And then the Logan jail called me and said Craig needed his meds. So I had to go to his house and pick up his medications and drive them up to Logan to him. The police allowed me into the house to get his meds. My sister came with me that day. While I was up there in Logan, dropping off the medications, I received a phone call from Wil. He said Richie had fallen and broken his arm (in South Jordan). They said it was obviously broken and that he was turning very white. My sister had worked in emergency rooms for years and she said that Rich needed to get to the ER immediately. So I called a man I had met when I moved into those apartments (who had become a good friend) and asked if he could get Richie to an emergency room for me, since I was at least 2 or more hours away. My friends name is also Rich. His daughter and Richie had become good friends, so I knew Richie would be OK with him. They got him to the hospital and by the time I reached him he was already being treated.
The detectives told me they needed a few days to search the house for evidence and that once they were done, I could go in. It took them about 3 days. They carried out bags and bags of things. They took all our computers, including the boys laptops. They took Craigs shoes, and some of his clothing. Then I was cleared to go in.
I started in our bedroom. I walked around the house like I was in a ghost town. The house was in such a mess. It was dark, dirty and smelled terrible. Animal control had come over and taken all the animals out. Craig had snakes, rats, guinea pigs and more, but their cages were filthy. He had stopped caring for them weeks or months prior. His cats had been breeding in his closet, so there was a bloody shirt on the ground where she had delivered. Craig had also trained them to use the toilet instead of a litter box, so the guest bathroom looked disgusting. I couldn’t believe the state of the house. It was no wonder the boys were having a hard time going over there.
In the bedroom, I went to my dresser and opened some of the drawers to see what I had left in them. This is when I discovered that drawer full of audio tapes. I didn’t even know Craig had been recording all our calls. He had them labelled with the dates, and/or names on them. This is where I found the one that he had written “Tamara and Eve” on it. I took that tape with me to listen to in the car while driving back to South Jordan. (How did the cops not see this?)
Then I went over to my bedside table. He had papers everywhere, notes etc. I found one sticking out from under the phone. I picked up the phone and pulled the paper out. It had Mike Boudrero’s name, birthdate and social security number on it. All in Craig’s handwriting. It also had the name of an insurance company on it. Then I noticed all of my information on it too! My birthdate, SS#, my insurance company I have been with for years. All I could think was “How on earth did the police spend 3 days collecting evidence and miss these items??” So I took the paper and the tape and headed home. I played the tape in the car and heard the conversation between Craig and Tamara discussing their plans about living like kings in Belize as soon as they got “the loan”.
I called the detectives and they came and picked these items up from me. Luckily I still had an old tape to tape machine in my stereo, so I was able to copy that tape before they took it. In fact, I have the original with his handwriting on it, so I must have given them the copy. They also took the paper with the personal info on it.
Among the phone calls I had received in the last few days was one from a lady who was freaked out about lending Craig her gun. She said that Craig had borrowed her .32 cal pistol when he took the boys up to Park City for the weekend, and when she asked Craig for it back, he said he had lost it. Now she was on the phone to me, freaking out, because that was the exact caliber Craig had used to shoot Mike. She wanted her gun back! It was too late. He had thrown it in the Salt Lake. She knew Craig was a restricted person, and her job was a dispatcher or something, so she was really worried she would get into trouble for lending him that gun. I have no idea if she was ever questioned about that.
Another call I got was from a girl Craig had been dating apparently, and she said there was a lot of cash in Craig's bedroom. She said she had been with him over the weekend and that Craig had about $5000 in cash on his bed. I had asked my boys about it, and they verified that Dad always had a lot of cash in his room. He used to let them jump on the bed with $100 bills all around them. So while I was in the house, of course I looked for cash. But there was nothing. I did however find his safe, but it was locked. I was able to get the safe over to the fire department (my brother in law was a Captain) and he used the jaws of life and broke open the safe for me. Much to my horror, there was no money, just a few porn videos. Joke was on me I guess. To this day I don’t know if Craig had put the money somewhere else on Monday, or if he took it to Tamaras. Or did the detectives find it and take it as evidence? I will never know.
Craig had been trying to sell the house, so it had a For Sale sign in the yard. His agent called me and told me that the house was in foreclosure. She said Craig had not made a payment on it for about a year (basically since I had moved out). I think he knew his time was up and that everything was going to come to an end and he would be long gone before it caught up with him. So he stopped paying on EVERYTHING, and took out as much credit as he could. I also found out he had bought a house in Farmington that he had not made a payment on either. I had never even heard about that house. All the credit he was using still had my name on it, so I discovered I owed hundreds of thousands of dollars.
So the Realtor agent said that since our house was in foreclosure, I literally had a few days to get my things out before they came and locked it all up. This was our 7 bedroom home. There was no way I could get everything moved out in a couple days, but I didn’t want to lose my things either. If you remember, Craig wouldn’t let me into the house once I moved out, so ALL of my things were still in there. My best friend and neighbor jumped into action. I will forever be SO GRATEFUL to her for how she handled everything. She spread the word in the neighborhood that I needed to get everything out of the house, and either sold or packed it. It was basically a massive yard sale where so many people came to help. My friend took care of everything that sold and she organized everything else to get moved or to be left. My mind was going in a hundred different places. By now the news had spread to all the neighbors about Craig, so I really got so much love and help. I could not have done it without all of them. At the end we had most everything out of the house and a lot of it sold. We did end up leaving a lot behind, that we still look back and think about, but at the time, we did the very best we could.
Then the detectives were meeting with me 3 to 4 times a week, for a few hours at a time. They would sit with me for hours and ask me so many questions. Since I had been keeping a journal and my planner updated, they were able to put things together and figure out when and how things had happened. Craig had already given some information so they were matching it up to my records. They asked me if I would give them permission to talk to my boys, with me present of course. The boys willingly gave information they had no idea had anything related to what had happened with their Dad. They told the detectives that Craig had been taking them to the Great Salt Lake a lot lately, which interested the detectives because Craig had told them he had thrown all the evidence into the Salt Lake. So the detectives asked if they could take us to the Salt Lake and see if the boys could show them where they would go. But that was hopeless. That lake is so big, and the boys were so young, it all looked the same to them.
Then the detectives asked if they could show us a video. It was the surveillance video taken from the Logan Walmart, where Craig had bought the phone card and called Mike. When we watched the video, the boys immediately recognised Craig's car pulling into the parking lot, (he had a headlight out) and then they saw him walk into the Walmart, pay for the card, walk over to the pay phone and make a call. The boys didn’t know this was the day Craig had committed the crime, they just watched the video and recognised their Dad. This was all used as evidence against Craig. Since Craig and I were still legally married (he had not ever agreed to the divorce documents) I was not asked to testify. It’s a law in place, that you don’t have to testify against your spouse. I was relieved to hear this, since I already felt like I had done enough. And now I realised how much I had given them, and Craig would not be happy with me. I started to really fear that they would let him out on a bond or parole and that he would come after me. The detectives assured me he was not getting out, but that they would place us in protective custody if, by chance, he did get out.
Next time I will tell you about the jewelry Craig told the detectives he stole from me, but what the real story turned out to be. And then how the detectives told me that I was next on the list to be taken out, and how they had found a passport in my name, but with Tamaras picture in it. They had everything figured out, I was the last thing on the checklist to be done and off they were going to Belize, with all the children.
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