After his wife Heidi was fatally shot, Nicholas Firkus had told police and his wife's family that a "black guy" broke into their St. Paul home and, during a struggle over a shotgun, Heidi was fatally shot.
Police say he made up the story and he was the one who actually pulled the trigger and in February, a jury found him guilty in February of first-degree murder. This Thursday, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole, Law&Crime reported.
“The light of truth finally broke through the darkness of lies and deceit to make way for justice and accountability for Heidi’s death,” said Linda Erickson, Heidi’s mother, during the hearing. “… A sentence of life without Heidi was forced upon us by the person she pledged to love, honor and trust.”
Firkus still claimed his innocence on Thursday.
“I recognize the pain and loss shared by everyone here today,” he said in court. “It is a pain and loss that I have felt every day for the past 13 years and continue to carry with me today. While I understand the jury’s verdict and the sentence you must give, I do maintain and will maintain until my dying breath my innocence of this crime.”
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Firkus claimed that he and Heidi heard an intruder trying to enter their home on April 25, 2010 and that he told Heidi to call 911 while he armed himself with a shotgun. He then claimed that the intruder broke in and a struggle over the shotgun ensued, causing it to go off, striking Heidi in the back and wounding him in the thigh. Heidi died at the scene.
But according to prosecutors, Firkus shot Heidi because he was hiding news of their impending foreclosure from her, including that they were going to be evicted the next day and that he staged the break-in and shot himself.
"As explored in a soon-to-air episode of ABC’s 20/20, Nick Firkus met Rachel Firkus (née Watson) just a matter of months after Heidi Firkus was shot dead. The two got married in August 2012 and went on to have three kids," Law&Crime's report stated. "According to Rachel, her suspicions about her husband’s involvement in Heidi’s death were raised when she found a notice that they might lose their home to foreclosure, due to unpaid property taxes."
As Law&Crime points out, a criminal complaint said that Firkus tried to blame a “black guy” for shooting him and Heidi.
“He said that he got his shotgun and that he and his wife were trying to run out the back door to the detached garage to escape. He said that as they were running to the garage, he turned around and the suspect was able to take the shotgun from him and shoot him and his wife. When asked whether the suspect was black or white, NICHOLAS FIRKUS said that he didn’t know. He said that the suspect was wearing a hood,” the complaint said.
Read the full report over at Law&Crime.