Alabama Nurse Accused of Poisoning Detective Husband With Insulin as He Probed Her Suspected Drug Use: Cops

Marjorie Nicole “Nikki” Cappello is accused of fatally poisoning her husband.
Madison County Jail

Nicole Cappello declared she is innocent of her husband's death.

An Alabama nurse fatally poisoned her private detective husband with drugs she allegedly stole from the hospital she worked after he started to investigate her suspected drug use, police said. According to police, Marjorie Nicole "Nikki" Cappello, 34, was slowly poisoning her husband James Cappello with insulin she allegedly obtained while working as a nurse at a local hospital.

Cappello reported her husband missing the day before his body was found, an indictment said.

Police allegedly discovered her husband's car in their driveway when they met with Cappello hours later. She was arrested and charged with murder on the day her husband’s body was found, Sept. 22, 2018. Police also found a partially-dug hole in the couple’s backyard.

Two days after her arrest, the former nurse posted bail and has been living in the home the couple once shared.

Jim’s sister, Jamie Weast, who is also a nurse, said that her brother was investigating his wife's alleged drug use, an investigation driven solely by his love for their 4-year-old daughter.

"He didn't want her under Nikki's care — not if she was abusing drugs," Weast told People.

Weast told People that her brother, who she described as someone who was always "quick with a joke," was collecting evidence of his wife’s alleged addiction to painkillers, but was not thinking about divorcing her.

Cappello denies killing her husband and is set to stand trial in 2021. If convicted, she faces life in prison.

"Nikki needs to be behind bars because she thought this through and she was willing to get rid of her daughter's father, and screw up her life," Weast said. "She will be a teen one day and she will Google her dad's name and she will have questions that I don't know that we'll ever get the answers to.”

A GoFundMe campaign has been organized on behalf of their daughter.

RELATED STORIES