Sandi Nieves is a mass murderer who has been sentenced to death for murdering her four daughters and then setting their home ablaze on July 1, 1998.
After having 3 kids in a previous marriage, Sandi married her former stepfather David and had two more children. But her aggressive and controlling nature caused a divorce. Following this, a relationship with a man in his twenties leaves her pregnant. But the father left her, causing Sandi to have an abortion.
To get revenge on the men in her life, she set the house on the fire on June 30, 1998. Her four daughters died from carbon monoxide poisoning. Before setting a gasoline-soaked rug on fire, she taped the doors and windows to keep the smoke in the room. One daughter threw up before death.
Sandi's blank reaction to being told this was suspicious to Sheriff Deputy Delores Scott. Jaqlene Marie Folden, 5, Kristl Dawn Folden, 7, Rashel Holly Nieves, 11, and Nikolet Amber Nieves, 12, were clad in their pajamas when they were found dead in sleeping bags and bedding in the kitchen. The woman's 14-year-old son, David, was hospitalized briefly for smoke inhalation and is now living with his father.
Detective Scott smelled the stench of gasoline in the house. Detectives also found angry letters written to her second husband by Nieves.
She may have intended to die with her children.
In April 2000, she went on trial. She tried to blame her surviving son David. Yet, he didn't do anything wrong. Nieves was convicted of four counts of murder and one count of attempted murder and sentenced to death in Los Angeles County on October 6, 2000.