John Jefferson
Inset: Nichole Maks (Volusia County Sheriff’s Office). Background: Maks being arrested by deputies (Volusia County Sheriff’s Office).
A 37-year-old woman in Florida will spend several decades behind bars for killing her 79-year-old roommate, beating and stabbing him to death in the home they shared, then dousing herself in Diet Mountain Dew in an attempt to thwart police from collecting DNA evidence while being interviewed by police. Volusia County Circuit Court Judge Leah R. Case on Thursday ordered Nichole Maks to serve a sentence of 35 years in a state correctional facility for the 2023 slaying of Michael Cerasoli, court documents reviewed by Law&Crime show.
Maks was arrested in July 2023 and charged with one count of first-degree murder, one count of tampering with evidence, and one count of resisting arrest with violence for killing Cerasoli. On Thursday she pleaded no contest to the lesser crime of second-degree murder, as well as one count each resisting with violence, arson of a dwelling, and tampering with physical evidence.
The sentencing hearing
Court documents show that under the terms of her plea agreements, Maks had been facing between 35 and 75 years in prison. Case said she decided to hand down the minimum sentence due to Maks’ history of physical and sexual abuse that eventually led to her having a mental breakdown, according to a report from The Daytona Beach News-Journal.
Prosecutors with the State Attorney’s Office reportedly did not make a sentencing recommendation or argue for a harsher sentence. One prosecutor reportedly told the court that he was “disgusted” by what he learned had been done to Maks through various deposition testimony.
“I do feel like but for her mental health this would not have happened and her traumatic upbringing,” Case reportedly said. “The abuse that she has suffered at the hands of (like the prosecutor said) most males she’s ever come in contact has been horrendous.”
Case credited Maks with 562 days of time already served.
The murder
As previously reported by Law&Crime, authorities in Daytona Beach responded to an emergency call at about 1:46 a.m. on July 1, 2023, regarding a fire at a home in the 600 block of Clark Street. Once there, firefighters found a man lying on the floor in a second-story bedroom of the home. The victim appeared to have suffered blunt force trauma to the back of his head and multiple stab wounds.
Police responded to the scene and recovered a bloody knife near the victim’s body and two cellphones. Blood spatter was also located on the walls. Police say that one of the phones belonged to Maks, who was not there when firefighters arrived. Police put out a bulletin stating that Maks was a person of interest in the investigation.
At about 3:30 a.m., a detective spotted a shoeless Maks at a restaurant in Holly Hill. When he made contact, she “dropped a knife and a hammer” in his presence. The detective noted that Maks appeared to have blood on her leg and on her ripped shirt.
When asked where she lived, Maks dissembled for a bit before claiming that she had been living on the streets for the last four years. She was then shown a photo of Cerasoli and “denied knowing the victim.”
When pressed about whether she knew him, she conceded that she did live with him for a little while, but claimed she’d only seen him “a handful of times,” and denied seeing him at all on the day he was killed. She then changed her story again, saying she was not homeless and currently lived in the residence with the victim and was there earlier in the day.
Due to her inconsistent statements about the victim, Maks was taken into custody.
In her post-Miranda interview, Maks claimed she’d never been in the victim’s room but would sometimes go to the second floor of the home to “feed her spiders.”
Maks initially denied having a knife and hammer on her when spotted by police before confessing to possessing the items. When asked about the fire, police said Maks became “agitated” and asked for an attorney.
A short time later, police told Maks they had a warrant and would take a sample of her DNA. Maks then requested a Diet Mountain Dew, which was provided.
“Maks began to procrastinate while drinking the soft drink then when [a detective] attempted to grab the can of soda from Maks’ hands,” a probable cause affidavit stated. “Maks began to resist and began pouring the can of soda all over her body and hair and pulling away from officers in attempts to interfere with the possible evidence on Maks’ body. Maks then began pulling and kicking officers while trying to secure Maks in the vehicle. Due to Maks’ actions, she was charged with tampering with evidence and resisting arrest with violence.”
Detectives said the DNA from blood on the knife found next to the victim matched the sample taken from Maks.
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