Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
LOGAN, Utah (AP) -- On the same day Tamra Rhinehart made her first court appearance on aggravated murder charges in the slaying of a Logan plumber, her boyfriend also was charged.
Rhinehart appeared Wednesday before 1st District Court Judge Clint S. Judkins. She qualified for a court-appointed attorney, but the court will wait until Monday to select a defense lawyer who qualified to handle a potential death-penalty case.
Her boyfriend, Craig D. Nicholls, also has been charged with aggravated murder in the shooting death of Rhinehart's ex-husband, Michael Boudrero, whose body was found in a partially finished North Logan house on July 11.
The Cache County Attorney's Office also charged Nicholls with possession of a firearm by a restricted person, a third-degree felony. Nicholls had been previously convicted of fraud in Murray.
Nicholls, who was in the Weber County Jail on an immigration and naturalization hold, is a South African national.
County Attorney George Daines said he expects more charges to be filed in the case.
Prosecutors have said insurance money was believed to have been the motive for the slaying.
Daines said at least one active life insurance policy on Boudrero had been uncovered.
Boudrero's attorney, Steven Bailey, said his client had been concerned that Rhinehart might take a life insurance policy out on him, then go to any length to collect on it.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
