Woman Faces Death Penalty in Murder of Parents

TAMPA, FL – The 21-year-old woman accused of killing her mother and stepfather at their Carrollwood home in August now faces the death penalty.

Assistant Hillsborough State Attorney Scott Harmon filed notices with the court on Monday announcing the state’s intent to seek the maximum penalty in the slayings, according to Hillsborough County court records.

Nicole Gene Nachtman is accused of killing Myriam Carey Dienes, 56, and Robert Dienes, 67, after allegedly hearing voices that told her to, an August arrest report stated. Deputies discovered the bodies after receiving reports of shots fired on Fennsbury Drive in Carrollwood.

Myriam Dienes, deputies said, was found dead in her driveway with a gunshot wound to her neck and two to the torso. Robert Dienes was found inside the home with a single gunshot wound to the neck.

See Also:

• Report: ‘Screaming Voices’ Told Woman to Kill Parents
• Daughter Charged in Carrollwood Double Homicide

While Nachtman initially told deputies she was in Tallahassee at Florida State University at the time of the murders, her story, the report noted, did not stand up to scrutiny. University police, the report said, confirmed that Nachtman’s student identification had not been used for days. It was, however, swiped on campus the day after the bodies were found on Aug. 21. A person Nachtman said could confirm she was in her room when the murders occurred told detectives she could not, the report added.

Detectives located another witness who said Nachtman told him she drove to the campus on Aug. 18 to pay for her dorm.

“While she was at the campus, she continuously heard screaming voices in her head and began thinking about killing her mother,” the report quoted the witness as saying. After seeing signs on campus that inferred “your dreams were about to come true,” Nachtman drove back to Tampa.

Back in Tampa, Nachtman, the report said, found her stepfather home alone. She obtained a firearm and shot Dienes inside the home, the report said.

The shooting, the witness told police, helped the screaming voices fade.

Deputies say Nachtman waited overnight for her mother, a Navy Reserve captain, to return home from a training exercise. When she did, Nachtman is accused of shooting her mother.

A hearing in the case is scheduled for Jan. 6, but a trial date has not yet been set, court records indicate.

Booking photo courtesy of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office