VENECIA NICHOLS from Florida------------------------------------------- A young woman at the time who murdered in Collaboration with JESSIE MAE GRAHAM her own adoptive-mother, Ernestine Nichols, in Cold Blood

VENECIA NICHOLS

FLORIDA OFFENDER INFORMATION (as of May 4th, 2014):
Source & Picture from: http://www.dc.state.fl.us/

'A hard-hearted woman'
10 months later, woman, friend charged in mom's death

FROM: The Lakeland Ledger (July 11th 1994)
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Venecia Nichols walked into the Lakeland Police Department one day in May with a story to tell detectives — how her boyfriend killed her mother 10 months before. But when she left later that day it was in handcuffs. And she and an accomplice had been charged with the murder.

Police say Nichols, 24, smothered her adoptive mother with a pillow while she slept, in order to inherit the woman's two modest houses, car and 9.700 USD in savings and life insurance. "She's a hard-hearted woman," said Lakeland police Sgt. Randy Harrison. "She was a suspect in the thing from the very beginning, but we just didn't have enough evidence to do anything with it," he said. "We tried to talk with her before and she wouldn't cooperate with us." Venecia Nichols' mother, Ernestine, was a healthy, friendly and active 68-year-old, neighbors said. She mowed her own lawn, tended the garden at her periwinkle and peach home on Valencia Street 116 W in north-central Lakeland, cared for her invalid Graham brother and of ten entertained friends from the Beulah Baptist Church.

Valencia Street 116 W in north-central Lakeland, the place where Ernestine lived and died

But in the morning of July 24th, her dead body was found lying on her bed, with a pillow over her head. Venecia told police she'd been out all night with her boyfriend, Sherman Lattimore. When they returned about 7:50 in the morning, they discovered the back door open, with her mothers wallet, papers and cable television converter strewn across the lawn. It looked like the place had been burglarized. A television was missing.

Then they discovered the body of Ernestine. Judge Douglas Alexander (Ernestine's 76-year-old invalid brother) was asleep in another room and heard nothing. But earlier in the evening he overheard his sister and niece arguing. "They were fussing," he said, and Ernestine told her daughter not to go out. "Instead Venecia said, 'Well, I'm going,' and I heard her slam the door."

 Alexander Melamud, M.D., M.A.

Sometime during the night Ernestine Nichols died of cardiac arrhythmia, an autopsy showed. But the manner of death was classified as undetermined. Associate Medical Examiner Alexander Melamud told police, that Nichols could have been smothered, but died of a heart attack before she suffocated.

Seeds of trouble

Venecia's uncle, Nick Alexander of Brooksville, said, "I suspected her right away. When she came to the funeral she sort of dropped her head and looked away." Alexander's sister and her late husband, Lonzer, adopted Venecia when she was a little girl, and the small family got along well until Venecia got to be about 11 years old, he said. "I tried to tell her how she should've never done something like that (adopting), because she didn't know the background of the child," Nick Alexander said. "I was thinking something like this might happen."

As Venecia grew older she grew more insolent, he said, and the fights with Ernestine grew worse and more frequent. "She tried to get her to stay at home," Judge Alexander said, but Venecia would "leave home and stay three or four weeks away." "My sister was determined to stop her," Nick Alexander said, but "I told my sister to let her go on about her business."

Both of her uncles said that Venecia got "mixed up in a crowd that abused drugs.", though police could not confirm this. Once she was staying at Judge Alexander's home when he was at a veteran's hospital, and she racked up a 700 Dollar phone bill that she never paid, said Nick Alexander, 83, Ernestine's oldest brother.

When Ernestine Nichols died, Venecia inherited her mother's house, at 116 W. Valencia St., and the house across the street, which she had been renting out. Judge Alexander said that Venecia got 4.000 USD from her mother's life insurance policy, another 4.000 from her bank account plus 1.700 Dollar of his money his sister was keeping in her account. There was also a 1985 Cadillac and several things Judge Alexander said Ernestine had bought for her daughter: a 1984 Ford Mustang, a fur coat, and a baby grand piano.

"She kept everything in the house," he said. "She took it all and pawned it." He said his sister also had four television sets, so he asked Venecia for one of them. She refused. "She took them all and got rid of them," he said. "She pawned them. Got money for drugs."

"I believed something had happened to her,(Ernestine)" once Venecia started selling all of Ernestine Nichols' possessions, said Nichols' sister, 71-year-old Annie Ruth Hicks. Nick Alexander said the last time he saw his niece was in August, about 10 days after his sister's funeral.

He found her in the yard at the house. "I asked her what happened," he said. "She dropped her head and she couldn't explain herself." He could never get hold of her again after that, and is sure she was avoiding him.

An unlikely suspect as the months passed, Sgt. Harrison said, the family vented its frustration over the case. Convinced they knew who committed the murder, they felt police weren't doing anything about it, he said. "People don't realize it takes a lot of time," he said. "But that's difficult to explain to a family."

Then on May 11th, three days after Mother's Day, Venecia Nichols walked into the Lakeland police headquarters and asked to talk to Sgt. Harrison. She wanted to implicate her boyfriend in her mother's murder, Harrison said. But detectives had been busy the previous 10 months, talking to sources and Nichols' acquaintances. Each tidbit of information they provided helped form a clearer picture of that what really happened in Ernestine Nichols' bedroom that July night.

Annie Ruth Hicks, Ernestines Sister, died in December 1999

And with that, detectives were able to explain why the murder couldn't have happened the way Venecia said it did. "Apparently, it impressed her," Harrison said. "She was pretty stead-fast there for a few minutes, then I think she realized it was over with."

Earlier in the day she'd met with a real-estate agent, trying to sell some of her mother's property. But the deal was complicated by the fact that the case was still open, Harrison said. "There was a method to her madness. She needed somebody in jail," he said. But once she delivered herself to the police, and they confronted her with the information they had, police say she folded.

According to the arrest report, she gave a taped statement saying, that she and a friend, 23-year-old Jessie Mae Graham, talked about killing her mother for the inheritance, the night of July 23rd. She told police "that after her mother fell asleep they entered her bedroom and Venecia watched as Jessie Mae Graham killed her mother by holding a pillow over her face," the arrest report said. The report said also that Nichols promised Graham a car for her assistance.

837 N. Iowa Avenue in Lakeland, the place where Jessie Graham was living at the time

Police then picked up Graham at the house the women shared at 837 N. Iowa Avenue, and she came back to the station and agreed to talk. Graham told police "she held Ernestine Nichols' legs down, while Venecia smothered her.", the arrest report said. "During their discussion prior to the murder Venecia mentioned stabbing her mother but dismissed this method due to the mess it would make, it was then decided to smother her," the report said.

Ernestine

After Graham gave her statement, Lakeland detective Joe Louden said, that she told him: "I'm glad it's over.".

Under Florida law it doesn't matter who held the pillow; if both women participated in the crime, both could face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder.

In spite of Venecia's apparent admission, her boyfriend, Sherman Lattimore, said, he still believes she's innocent. She told police they were together the night of the murder, and he reiterated that story last week. "I don't believe that she did" kill her mother, he said. "We were out for that night."

Now Nichols and Graham (who is Lattimore's cousin) are sitting in the Polk County Jail charged with first degree murder. Nichols wouldn't comment for this article without the consent of her attorney, Dan Brawley of Lakeland, who refused to allow it. He also refused to comment.

Nick Alexander said a woman, who visited Nichols in jail recently told him she asked for a 5 Dollar loan from her uncle.

"Hell, I won't give her a damn thing," Nick Alexander said. "I hope they burn her. They can throw her in the fire and burn her up, she done my sister like that."

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Woman sentenced to life in jail for killing 68-year-old adoptive mother for inheritance

FROM: The Lakeland Ledger (April 28th 1995)
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Venecia Nichols, 25, will spend the next half of her life in prison for killing her adoptive mother, Ernestine Nichols, for a 10.000 US-Dollar inheritance. A jury found Venecia Nichols guilty of first-degree murder in the July 24th, 1994, suffocation death of her adoptive mother in their North Lakeland home.

Circuit Judge Daniel True Andrews immediately sentenced her to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. Prosecutor Cass Castillo told a jury that the Nichols' case was about "a mother's love and a daughter's greed." Ernestine Nichols loved her daughter, but Venecia Nichols "rebelled and chose the streets," Castillo said. Nichols went on an immediate spending spree after the murder because "she had no emotion for her mother.", Castillo said. "It was like killing any-body," he said.

Nichols showed no emotion after the jury announced its verdict. Jurors deliberated for four hours. The woman that prosecutors said helped Nichols commit the murder, Jessie Mae Graham, 24, pleaded guilty to second-degree in March 1995 and testified against Nichols.

Graham reached an agreement with prosecutors that calls for her to receive between 10 and 20 years in prison. The exact length of the sentence will be up to Andrews. Nichols' defense attorney, Dan Brawley told the jury Thursday that Graham's plea agreement "was the deal of a lifetime.'

Brawley told the jury that Graham was the dominant woman in the relationship between her and Venecia Nichols. When it comes to manipulation, Brawley said, "Jessie Mae Graham takes the cake". The defendant is a big woman, Brawley said. "but no match for Jessie Mae Graham." Castillo said.

Both women were guilty because "They were soul-mates, in murder." Castillo said.

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Plea bargain gets murderer 20 years

FROM: The Lakeland Ledger (June 22nd 1995)
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After testifying against her friend in the murder of the friend's mother, Jessie Mae Graham of Lakeland was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Graham and Venecia Michelle Nichols had been charged in the July 1993 murder of Ernestine Nichols, 68, of Lakeland, Florida. The two women decided to kill Nichols' mother to get her money and valuables, according to court documents.

The murder went unsolved for almost a year, until Venecia Nichols went to the Lakeland police to say that she and Graham discussed killing Ernestine . She said it was Graham who held a pillow over her mother's face to kill her. Under a plea agreement signed in March 1993, Graham, 24 at the time, was allowed to plead to second-degree murder if she testified against her friend. If convicted at trial on the first-degree murder charge. Graham faced life in prison without the possibility of release for 25 years.

Sentencing guidelines suggested between 10 and 20 years in prison for Graham. Circuit Court Judge Daniel True Andrews sentenced her to the maximum, followed by 10 years of probation. If she qualifies for early release, Graham will serve about half of the sentence. Venecia Nichols, 25, was convicted in April of first-degree murder and is serving a 25-year minimum sentence. Judge Andrews requested that the two women not be sent to the same prison.

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Jessie Grahams Mugshot 2004

Seems she did not learn from the 1st Case. 2nd Degree Murder ? See following Links:

• http://www.florida-mugshot-locator.com/Counties/Polk-County/Jessie-Mae-Graham.23865333.html

• http://www.justmugshots.com/florida/polk-county/15077652

Sherman Lattimore`s Mugshot(s):

For Details about Lettimore see following Links (Polk County):

• http://florida.arrests.org/Arrests/Sherman_Lattimore_3622548/
• http://florida.arrests.org/Arrests/Sherman_Lattimore_3616219/