Jury delivers verdict in Fremont case debated as murder or suicide

DUBLIN — A mistrial was declared Tuesday in the murder trial of Nolan Hurd, who tearfully took the stand and declared his innocence last month amid allegations that he fatally shot his longtime girlfriend at a Fremont hotel.

A jury acquitted Hurd, 25, of first-degree murder in the January 2022 death of Nikha Marcella DeGuzman, who was shot in the back of the head after neighbors reported an argument in their hotel room. The jury ended up deadlocked on the lesser charges of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter.

A poll of the jury showed that nine jurors favored finding Hurd guilty of second-degree murder, while eight thought he was guilty of involuntary manslaughter, according to the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office.

The case revolved around a central question: Was DeGuzman gunned down by her longtime boyfriend the night of Jan. 27, 2022, or did she unexpectedly turn a .40-caliber gun on herself?

The trial ran weeks longer than expected, and it ended with Hurd taking the uncommon step of testifying on his own behalf.

Breaking down in tears while on the stand, Hurd described his shock at emerging from the hotel’s bathroom that night to see DeGuzman, 20, holding the gun and refusing to make eye contact with him, all while her eyes were filled with tears, according to court testimony.

Hurd said he tried to disarm DeGuzman, who had previously been diagnosed with major depressive disorder and had a history of suicide attempts when she was 11 to 14 years old, according to Hurd’s attorney.

“His only thought is ‘I’m going to take action, going to try to get the gun away from her,” said Hurd’s attorney, Adam Pennella, during closing arguments last week. He described Hurd scrambling to call 911 and pleading with dispatchers to send help quickly, all while trying to keep DeGuzman from moving.

“These are not actions of a guilty man — these are actions of someone who found themselves in the circumstances of an absolutely tragic event,” Pennella added. “Of course, his actions were not perfect. But under these kinds of circumstances, would yours?”

The 911 call made by Hurd a minute or two after the shooting took center stage during the trial, with Hurd’s attorney presenting a digitally enhanced version where DeGuzman could be heard saying “I shot myself.”

“That call alone — in and of itself — is reasonable doubt,” Pennella said.

Yet prosecutors pointed to testimony from DeGuzman’s friends and family that alleged a “toxic” relationship between the two, where Hurd used fear and even physical violence to bend DeGuzman to his will, according to Alameda County prosecutor Michiye Vella.

DeGuzman died, Vella added, because “she wasn’t going with whatever his program was that night.” The prosecutor even questioned why no witnesses saw Hurd with tears in his eyes immediately after the shooting.

Hurd was the only one with gunshot residue on his hands after the shooting, Vella said. And the trajectory of the fatal bullet — which entered through the lower back left side of DeGuzman’s head and exited out the conch of her left ear — eliminated the possibility of DeGuzman shooting herself, she added. That’s because DeGuzman was right-handed.

“She could not have shot herself in that manner,” Vella told the jury. “Not with this gun, which you’ll feel how heavy and large it is while you’re deliberating.”

She also pointed to prior incidents allegedly involving Hurd, seeking to show a pattern of violence. The prosecutor claimed Hurd beat DeGuzman after a traffic crash earlier in their relationship, and that he beat a woman in a previous relationship — allegations that Hurd’s attorney strenuously denied.

“Make no mistake about it: The defendant committed the cold-blooded murder of Nikha DeGuzman,” Vella told the jury during closing arguments. Look no further, she said, than the fact that he had a loaded gun in their room at the Good Nite Inn.

Left undecided at the trial were charges that Hurd picked up after the shooting, while he was being held at the Santa Rita Jail. Prosecutors have accused him of stabbing another inmate in 2024, as well as making homemade knife at the facility earlier this year.