Father gets 21 years: Big Lake man sentenced for fatally shaking infant daughter

PALMER -- A 23-year-old Big Lake man convicted of murdering his 7-month-old daughter when he shook her in a fit of rage, will spend at least 21 years in prison, according to a sentencing decision announced Friday in Palmer Superior Court.

Calling John Nichols' temper abominable, Anchorage Superior Court Judge Milton Souter said the sentence was meant to protect society and send a harsh message to anyone who hurt children.

"Since we don't know what sets it off and we don't know how to control it, I'm going to lock him away so he can't hurt others," Souter said. " The sentence here needs to serve as a warning to others not to do harm to little kids. This fatality was caused by extreme violence."

Souter sentenced Nichols to 60 years in prison, with 30 years suspended and 10 years of probation. Because Nichols was convicted of murdering his child, Tyler Cope, he is required by law to spend a minimum of 20 years in prison.

A Palmer jury in May found Nichols guilty of second-degree murder.

Because Nichols was on felony probation when he killed his child, he was given nearly two additional years for the prior convictions.

With the mandatory sentencing and time off for good behavior, Nichols will be 44 years old before he can be released.

Saying there was a constant feeling of hollowness in his heart, Nichols apologized for causing Tyler's death.

"Every night that I pray I tell my daughter that I love her and that I'm sorry," Nichols said.

Nichols had a criminal history of assault and burglary, and had battled problems with drug abuse. He took responsibility for the death of his daughter during the May murder trial. However, Nichols, who was 21 at the time of the murder, denied any memory of the actual event that ended in the infant's death.

Nichols' mother, Valerie Robinson, sobbed uncontrollably as she begged Souter to be lenient in sentencing her son.

"John is not the cruel and intentional murderer the [prosecutor] would lead you to believe," Robinson said. "It was a total and accidental tragedy."

Robinson said her son never wanted Tyler dead or hurt, but that he just snapped. She claimed Nichols still didn't remember shaking her grandchild to death and she hoped her son never would.

"God help him when John remembers . . . it will surely be a punishment." Robinson said.

On March 5, 2000, Nichols was alone in his Big Lake apartment caring for Tyler and her 2-year-old half sister while the children's mother was at work, according to Alaska State Troopers.

Tyler died the day after emergency workers found her unconscious after they responded to a 911 call. When doctors pronounced the baby brain-dead, Tyler was taken off life support and died.

Initially, Nichols blamed the baby's half-sister for causing the infant's death, then later recanted that story and told investigators he dropped Tyler in the bathtub.

It wasn't until the murder trial that Nichols admitted shaking his daughter to death.

Expert witnesses for both sides agreed Tyler Cope died from injuries consistent with shaken baby syndrome.

The jury viewed photographs of an unconscious Tyler lying in a hospital bed with a breathing tube inserted in her mouth. Large bruises covered the baby's jaw and smaller bruises dotted her temple, forehead and arms.

A state medical examiner testified the degree of force used to create such devastating injuries was comparable to the degree of force in a major car crash.

At Friday's hearing, Palmer District Attorney Roman Kalytiak asked that Nichols be given 70 years in prison, with half of that suspended, because of the victim's vulnerability and his criminal history.

"I tried to look for positive things about the way Mr. Nichols conducted his life before he killed his child," Kalytiak said. "This is a defendant who used drugs, didn't do his drug treatment, and was violent against people he knew and strangers."

But Nichols' attorney, Palmer Assistant Public Defender George Davenport, said there was still the potential to rehabilitate his client, and the murder conviction wasn't a logical successor to the other criminal offenses Nichol had amassed.

"I think Mr. Nichols is just as horrified as everyone else here. That does indicate a chance for rehabilitation," Davenport said.