|
Stella M. Nickell
Case:
DECLARATION OF A. J.
RIDER
I, Anna Jo rider, hereby make the following declaration. I would testify under
oath to the truth of each statement included herein.
I am personally familiar with Ms. Stella Maudine Nickell and
was personally familiar with Mr. Bruce Nickell, her husband. I
was one of the Nickells’ neighbors
and knew them well.
I was contacted by FBI Agent Randy Scott on or about June 18,
1986. He contacted me to question me about Stella Nickell and her
husband. This was after her husband
died. Agent Scott questioned me about Stella’s shopping habits and about
the non-prescription drugs she used and purchased, including Excedrin. He asked
me if I ever shopped with her. I told Agent Scott that, in fact, I did shop with
her on occasion, and that I specifically remembered being with her at Albertson’s
where she purchased two bottles of Excedrin for the price of one at an Albertson’s
two for one sale. I still have a clear recollection of the time I went shopping
with Stella where she bought the two for one Excedrin.
In September of 1986, FBI Agent Jack Cusack contacted me at my
home by telephone and told me that I needed to watch out for myself
and “hide.” He
told me that Stella Nickell was in the process of hiring a hit man or hit men
to kill me and my family, and that I should move as soon as possible. This was
terrifying to me. Cusack told me words to the effect that because of Stella’s
hit men, “we need to get you where you can’t be reached by her, her
investigators or hit men.”
In January of 1987, Agent Cusack came to meet my husband and
me in Las Vegas, where we had moved per his instructions. He again
told me that Stella was out
to kill me and my children, and that we should stay hidden there in Las Vegas
until he said it was okay to come back home. I asked him if there was any way
Stella Nickell’s investigators or attorneys would find us, and he replied, “No,
we will keep you well hidden from them. Don’t worry.” During this
visit Agent Cusack also told me that he personally gave Stella a polygraph examination
and that “she flunked the examination, which proves even further that she
did it. We have her cold.” He went on further to tell me that I “was
the mortar that holds the brick wall around the investigation of Stella Nickell
together.” I asked him repeatedly what it was that I knew that was so important
and each time I asked he told me that he could not tell me until the case was
all over.
Agent Cusack also told me that if investigators or anyone else
but him came to ask questions about Stella, her trial, or the tampering
case, that I should send
them away. He also advised me to change my telephone number, put the new telephone
number in the name of one of my children and keep it unlisted.
In December 1987 or January 1988, a person named Salvador Ramos,
who said he was an investigator came to my home and asked to talk
to me about Stella. I was
very scared and thought that I was in danger. I told him she was guilty, slammed
the door on him and called Agent Cusack.
I told Agent Cusack what had happened and what I had done. He
told me that he didn’t know how the investigator had found me but that I “did right” by
sending him away. Agent Cusack told me to move as soon as possible and that he
would try to continue to protect me from Stella and her people.
At the time this all transpired I was convinced of Stella’s guilt. This
was because Cusack told me things like “we have the goods on Stella,” “We’ve
got her cold” and “I can’t show you now because you are a prospective
witness, but I will show you later the evidence that shows she is without a doubt
guilty as sin.” He told me that when the case was over he would show me “the
filing cabinets full of the evidence against Stella Nickell.”
Agent Cusack never showed me any of this evidence.
I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct. s/ ANNA JO RIDER
5/29/01
| 
