'Worst case of elder abuse' in 10 years

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• Nicks brothers await sentencing for elder neglect case in Nampa

  Nicks brothers await sentencing for elder neglect case in Nampa

  Danny Nicks balked briefly in court Wednesday when he learned the deal he was about to accept was not legally bound to his brother David's fate.

  "I have no authority in David's case," Judge Dennis Goff said. "Does that change your decision?"

  "It might very well," Danny Nicks replied.

• Nampa man found guilty of neglecting aged mom

  Nampa man found guilty of neglecting aged mom

  Seven women and five men took less than two hours Wednesday to determine that Verda Nicks was a vulnerable adult and her son David Nicks, 56, criminally neglected her despite being responsible for her care.

  The verdict came after hours of prosecution testimony filled with gruesome details about the condition 92-year-old Verda Nicks and her Nampa home were in when police and paramedics intervened last Nov. 17.

  No witnesses were called in Nicks' defense during the two-day trial. Instead, his attorney, Bill Schwartz, said, "I rested on the state's case."

• Judge orders new trial for brother in elder abuse case

  Judge orders new trial for brother in elder abuse case

  After seven men and five women failed to agree on whether Danny Nicks, 55, criminally neglected his bedridden mother, 3rd District Judge Susan Wiebe declared a mistrial and set a new trial with a new jury.

  The July 20 trial is one week after Nicks' identical twin, David, is scheduled for sentencing on the same charge: felony neglect of a vulnerable adult.

  Shortly before they announced their deadlock, jurors indicated they couldn't agree on what constitutes a "vulnerable adult."

• Jury hears wrenching details in Nampa elder-abuse trial

  Jury hears wrenching details in Nampa elder-abuse trial

  Was Verda Nicks the victim of criminal neglect and unspeakable squalor? Or was she simply a stubborn, doctor-averse old woman "living the life she wanted to live" when police and paramedics took her from her Nampa home last November?

  Jurors heard two strikingly different accounts of the 92-year-old woman as the felony trial began Tuesday for her 56-year-old son David Nicks, charged with criminal abuse and neglect of a vulnerable adult.

  David's twin, Danny Nicks, will face the same charge in a separate trial later this month. The twins lived in a trailer behind their mother's home and told police they had moved from Oregon to take care of her.

• Nampa twin won't go to prison for criminally neglecting elderly mother

  Nampa twin won't go to prison for criminally neglecting elderly mother

  David Nicks, 56, must serve three years probation and a month in the county jail, but the jail term will be postponed until after his conviction is appealed, a judge ruled Thursday afternoon.

  His identical twin, Danny Nicks, will be sentenced Aug. 27, and Canyon County public defenders plan to appeal the brothers’ cases together, challenging the Idaho law that sent them both to trial.

  The brothers faced identical charges connected with their treatment of their 92-year-old mother, who was removed from her Nampa home Nov. 17 after police found her naked with severe bedsores in a bed covered with feces, urine and flies. Verda Nicks died about six weeks later, but her sons are not charged with causing her death.

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