Stock trader, 42, accused of pushing his girlfriend off a cliff for a $1M insurance payout, pleads guilty to homicide for 'waiting nearly two hours to call 911'

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An Oregon man, who was accused of pushing his girlfriend off a cliff for a $1 million insurance payout, pleaded guilty to waiting nearly two hours before calling 911 and coercing her for months to go hiking. 

State prosecutors dropped a murder charge against Steven P. Nichols, 42, for the death of his girlfriend Rhonda Casto, 23, earlier this week.

Casto fell 100 feet to her death shortly during a March 16, 2009, hike on the Eagle Creek Trail in the Columbia River Gorge.

Nichols was a suspect from the beginning and was accused of pushing her off the cliff just months after he increased her life insurance policy to $1 million. 

He pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide for reportedly waiting nearly two hours to call 911 after she fell.

Nichols said it took him an hour to get to her body. He then began CPR, before laying on top of her for 45 minutes until he got cold, according to Oregon Live. Nichols has never explained his actions.

Steven P. Nichols, 42, who was accused of pushing his girlfriend, Rhonda Casto (right) off a cliff for a $1 million insurance payout, pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide and coercion earlier this week 

Crime scene: Casto fell 100 feet during the March 16, 2009, hike on the Eagle Creek Trail in the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon (pictured)

Nichols' lawyer, Mike Arnold (on the ground at the scene), challenged the murder case, pointing out the destruction of evidence by an investigator and the unconstitutional three-hour police interview of Nichols after he was arrested

Nichols also pleaded guilty to coercing Casto to go on the hike.

He was placed on three years of probation after taking the plea deal. He will also get credit for the year and seven months he served while waiting for trail. 

In March, Nichols won a court victory that would not allow his statements made to police to be admissible at trial. 

The Oregon Supreme Court ruled at the time that a detective should have stopped interrogating Nichols when the suspect said he did not want to discuss Casto's death.

Nichols' lawyer, Mike Arnold, challenged the murder case, pointing out the destruction of evidence by an investigator and the unconstitutional three-hour police interview of Nichols after he was arrested, according to Oregon Live.

The interview occurred shortly after Nichols' February 2015 arrest at San Francisco International Airport, nearly six years after his partner's death.

A lead detective on the case also destroyed evidence on his computer, including crime scene and autopsy photos before he retired, court records showed.

In March, Nichols (left) won a court victory that would not allow his statements made to police to be admissible at trial. The state's Supreme Court ruled that a detective should have stopped interrogating Nichols when the suspect said he did not want to discuss Casto's (right) death

Beauty: Nichols, then a recently divorced 30-year-old stock trader, met Casto, a 20-year-old aspiring model, in 2005

Treacherous path: The hiking trail has a few narrow sections that drop off on one side into a ravine. The trail was even more dangerous that day due to a battering of sleet and hail that made the path treacherous

A Hood River County judge had ruled the statement inadmissible, but the state appealed to the higher court.

Casto was an aspiring model and young mother to their infant daughter at the time of her tragic death. 

Nichols called 911 at around 6pm that night to say Casto had slipped and fell, which was nearly two hours after she had fallen. 

The popular hiking destination has been the scene of other accidents in the past due to a few narrow sections that drop off on one side into a ravine.

The trail was even more dangerous that day due to a battering of sleet and hail that made the path treacherous. 

Records show that several months before the incident, Nichols, who was then working as a stock trader, increased Casto's life insurance policy to $1 million.

He was secretly indicted while living in China in April 2014.

Court documents show Nichols and Casto became romantically involved in 2005, according to The Oregonian.

In 2008, Casto gave birth to the couple's daughter (pictured), who would ultimately become the beneficiary of her mother's life insurance, along with her father

In an interview with CBS' 48 Hours last year, Casto's mother, Julia Simmons, said that she was the one who introduced Nichols to her daughter while renting a room in his three-bedroom condominium in Portland.

Nichols was 30 years old and recently divorced. Casto was 20 at the time.

'Everything about her was impressive. And I just immediately fell in love with her,' Nichols said in the March 2015 interview.

Before long, Casto moved into Nichols' home, and three years later they welcomed their baby daughter, who is now eight.

The papers reveal that the couple each bought a $1 million life insurance policy in late 2008 from MetLife and named each other as beneficiaries. 

Their daughter was named as a contingent beneficiary.

Nichols eventually agreed to split the money with Casto's mother and with the estate of his daughter. 

Casto's mother said that shortly before her fall, the 23-year-old told her Nichols had been pestering her about going on a hike

In the 48 Hours interview, Nichols said that after delivering their baby, Casto said she wanted to lose the baby weight so she could start modelling again, so the couple took up hiking.

Simmons, Casto's mother, said that in the weeks leading up to the fatal March 2009 outing to the Eagle Creek Trial, her daughter told her that Nichols had been trying to convince her to go for a hike for a month.

'She says, 'he's either gonna give me a ring or he's gonna throw me off the cliff,'' the mother said in the episode.

Nichols said March 16, 2009, started off as a nice day but the weather turned inclement as the couple were making their way up the narrow, moss-covered trail

As they reached a particularly slippery portion of the pathway, Casto fell off the cliff to her death.

Nichols said he hiked down to the spot where his girlfriend came to rest and tried to give her CPR, but it was too late.

He later claimed that the 23-year-old mom was high that afternoon, was acting silly and ran on the slick trail before disaster struck. 

Prosecutors would have had to show that Nichols intentionally caused Casto's death in order to prove murder. 

His lawyer concluded that there 'was no evidence', adding that it was just 'speculation and conjecture'.