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'Never Thought She Would Be Capable Of This,' Murdered Private Eye's Sister Says After His Wife's Arrest
Jamie Weast said she knew her brother James "Jim" Cappello was suspicious his wife, Marjorie Nicole “Nikki” Cappello, may have been using drugs, but she didn't think the woman would be capable of murder.
The sister of a slain private eye said she was shocked to hear that his wife, a nurse, may have killed him.
Marjorie Nicole “Nikki” Cappello, 33, of Huntsville, Alabama was indicted earlier this month on a murder charge for the 2018 death of her husband, James “Jim” Cappello, 37.
“I never thought she would be capable of this,” Jamie Weast, sister of the victim, told Oxygen.com Thursday. “My brother and his wife were in my husband and I’s wedding. We vacationed together."
Weast, her husband, and their kids live in Jacksonville, Florida.
While Weast was surprised by the murder accusations against her brother's wife — Nikki Cappello is accused of swiping insulin from the hospital where she worked so that she could poison her husband — Weast did know that her brother was suspicious about his wife’s actions.
James Cappello had his own private eye business and he had began using his skills to look into his own wife, as he suspected she had substance abuse issues, Weast told Oxygen.com.
“She was falling asleep a lot at odd times while eating,” she explained. “He felt like there was some odd behavior.”
Weast herself said she noticed some strange behavior when the Cappellos and their daughter visited them last April for her twins' birthday party and preschool graduation.
“I remember I had made dinner and she was almost face planting in the dinner,” Weast said. “She was nodding her head and I remember looking over at him, and the look on his face, you could see he was embarrassed.”
Weast, who works as a nurse herself, told her brother that something didn’t seem right. She said her brother put a tracker on his wife’s car and began gathering information on her.
“The very last week of August, he presented everything he found to her family and sat down and ultimately what he wanted was an intervention for his wife,” Weast said. “He didn’t get the help he was anticipating and well, I mean, then he was found dead.”
In September 2018, Nikki Cappello filed a missing persons report for her husband. A day after she filed that report, she allegedly called her friend Crystal Anderson and confessed that she actually killed her husband, WAFF48 in Huntsville reported last year. She also allegedly asked her pal to help her move and dispose of his body.
Anderson didn’t help move any body, but she did call the police. When the police arrived at the couple’s Huntsville home, they claimed they could smell a terrible stench emanating from the home’s front porch. After entering the property, they reportedly discovered James Cappello's decomposing body in the garage and an alleged dug-out grave in the home’s backyard.
The slain private investigator ran a successful business, loved his Corvette, but above all else, he loved his daughter, according to Weast.
“That was his world,” she told Oxygen.com.
Nikki Cappello’s attorney, Ron Smith, told Alabama.com earlier this month that his client “is presumed innocent” until proven guilty. He also said he hasn’t received any evidence from the prosecution yet.
Both Nikki Cappello’s arraignment and trial are scheduled for 2020. She faces up to life behind bars if convicted. While she was a nurse, she surrendered her nursing license following her arrest last year.
It’s believed that the James Cappello died of insulin poisoning. Huntsville police have accused his wife of taking insulin from her former hospital job, Alabama.com reported. Hospital staffers found insulin missing from their supply following the death, according to local outlet WAFF48.
