Police responded to a call regarding a fire at a residence at around 1:46 a.m. on July 1, 2023. When they arrived at the home, they found a deceased 79-year-old man on the second floor of the burning home with signs of blunt force trauma and stab wounds.
Police also found a bloody knife and two cell phones near the victim’s body, one of which belonged to the man’s roommate, 37-year-old Nichole Maks, who was not in the area when officers arrived.
Officers found Maks at around 3 a.m. walking without shoes near a restaurant, holding a knife and hammer. The officer that found her said she had blood on her leg and on her shirt, which was ripped.
Police asked Maks where she lived and if she knew the victim, and she said she had been homeless for four years and did not know the man. She eventually admitted that she did know him and lived with him for a short time, but that she did not see him often, at which point she also admitted she was not homeless.
Maks was taken into custody for questioning, and said that she had never entered the victim’s room before but occasionally went to the second floor to “feed her spiders,” per authorities.
When officers told Maks they were going to take a DNA sample from her, she asked for a Diet Mountain Dew. They gave it to her, but she “began to procrastinate” while drinking the soda until a detective eventually tried to take it away from her.
“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,” said a probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime.
“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 with violence.”
Maks was arrested in 2023, and on Feb. 27, 2025 she pleaded no contest to second-degree murder, resisting with violence, arson of a dwelling, and tampering with physical evidence. She was sentenced to 35 years in prison, the minimum for her charges
