Killer Nurse Found Guilty of Poisoning Husband

A Madison County jury deliberated for less than an hour on Thursday before delivering the verdict on whether former nurse, 32-year-old Marjorie “Nikki” Cappello, murdered her husband. They found her guilty.

Despite most of the evidence being circumstantial, and victim James “Jim” Cappello’s cause of death being indeterminable, prosecutors rested their case on Thursday after going through crime scene photos and testimony of investigators and a medical examiner.

Jim’s family reported him missing on September 27, 2018, but investigators suspected he was dead before that. In a police interview after finding the body, Nikki claimed she last spoke to Jim at 5 a.m. on Thursday, September 20.

That morning, Nikki said she spoke to Jim’s sister, Jamie. Jim was reportedly sick on Wednesday night. As of Thursday night, Nikki said she hadn’t seen him. That same evening, Jim’s mistress and co-worker, Laura Burks, sent Nikki a text wondering where he was.

Nikki filed a missing person’s report on Friday morning before taking her daughter to school, then going to her mother’s house.

Marjorie "Nikki" CappelloHuntsville Police Department

She said she found Jim’s body in the garage, but didn’t initially allow police to search the home, later saying she feared how things would look. However, when police searched the residence after getting a warrant, they found a prescription drug Jim thought Nikki was abusing, a freshly dug hole in the backyard, a muddy shovel and muddy women’s shoes, and his decomposing body on a tarp in the garage.

Nikki’s narcotics use is why Jim, a private investigator, was preparing to file for divorce and custody of their seven-year-old daughter. Instead of letting him move on with his life, prosecutors say Nikki poisoned him with insulin, as investigators found insulin needles and syringes in the home.

Homicide investigator Michael DeNoon testified that inside the home, they also found multiple laptops, two iPads, iPhones, a Sony camera, and several medications.

Investigators suspect Nikki used insulin injections to kill Jim. However, according to Valerie Green, who performs autopsies at the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, testified in the trial that a few days after the injection, insulin cannot be detected in the body, and the needle will rarely leave a mark or injection site. It made it impossible to confirm Jim’s cause of death.

Despite that, one of Nikki’s friends testified Nikki admitted to poisoning Jim, and that she stole the insulin from the North Alabama Specialty Hospital in Athens, where she was a nurse.

The crime has devastated Jim’s family. His father, James, lives with the lingering question: “Why did you do this?”

James "Jim" CappelloProvided to Oxygen by victim's family

“I mean, did you hate your daughter? Because she’s the one who’s living through this. You took a father away, you took a mother away, and a whole family life,” James said to WaayTV.

Jim ran his own successful private investigator business, his sister, Jamie, told Oxygen. She said that he loved his Corvette but most of all, he loved his daughter. He was investigating Nikki for her alleged substance abuse problems before filing for divorce.

Jim’s family says that Nikki was “stone cold and emotionless” during the trial, even when the verdict was handed down. Nikki pleaded not guilty last year. A sentencing date has yet to be announced.