Summary Adopted as an infant, 17-year-old Nikki Reynolds had a normal, happy childhood: she was active in church and sang in her high school choir. But, according to her adoptive father, Robert Reynolds, things changed in the 10th grade when Nikki began dating Carlos Infante. Both her grades and her relationship with her adoptive parents deteriorated. So did her credibility when, in 1996, Nikki told her parents she'd been raped by a stranger. The Reynolds immediately reported the incident to police, who determined that the entire thing was a fabrication. Confronted with the findings, Nikki admitted she'd made the whole thing up because she feared she was pregnant. For the next several months, Nikki and Carlos' relationship continued on and off until, in May of 1997, the school guidance counselor contacted Billie Jean Reynolds, Nikki's adoptive mother, and told her the school was buzzing with rumors that Nikki was pregnant. Mrs. Reynolds scheduled an appointment with the school guidance counselor for the morning of May 15th. She'd miss the meeting. On the evening of May 14th, not long after her father had left for church, Nikki called 911 and told the dispatcher she'd just killed her mother. When the cops arrived, they found a trail of blood leading throughout the house and, at its end, Billie Jean dead from multiple stab wounds. Nikki told the police that, shortly after her father left for church, she'd taken a 14-inch butcher knife and attacked Billie Jean. The two then ran around the house, Nikki stabbing her mother repeatedly until she collapsed. Then, according to Nikki, she'd asked her dying mother for forgiveness. And, after Billie Jean forgave her, Nikki stabbed her one last time in the chest, ending her agony. Asked why she'd done it, Nikki told the police "she must have been crazy." She was booked on murder charges. At her first trial, jurors couldn't reach a verdict. At her second trial, the defense pled insanity, claiming that Nikki was too emotionally disturbed to have formed clear intent to commit murder. They also claimed Nikki inherited severe depression and psychological problems from her biological mother. Then, to back up the claim, they put Nikki's biological mother on the stand to testify in the defense of a daughter she'd never known. Prosecutors, in closing, contended that Nikki had plotted to kill both her parents, while the defense stressed Nikki's disturbed emotional state. In 1999, a second jury found Nikki guilty of 2nd degree murder. The judge sentenced her to 34 years in prison. She'll be eligible for parole in 2015.

• Crime
• Crime Documentary
• Documentary