OROVILLE, CA — An Oroville woman who admitted to fatally shooting her husband while he slept was sentenced Tuesday to 35 years to life in prison.

Jessica Rose Nichols, 27, pleaded no contest last month to first-degree murder and admitted using a firearm in the killing of 22-year-old Mateo Lange, according to the Butte County District Attorney’s Office.

Judge Virginia Gingery handed down the sentence—25 years to life for murder, with an additional 10-year enhancement for the firearm use.

District Attorney Mike Ramsey said the fatal shooting took place in the early morning hours of November 6, 2020, inside the couple’s apartment on Grand Avenue in Oroville. Lange was asleep on a makeshift bed on the living room floor when Nichols shot him three times with a 9mm Glock pistol—twice in the head and once in the chest. The chest wound, investigators later determined, was a contact wound, fired at close range.

The moments after the shooting were captured in part by a neighbor who, upon hearing the first two shots, stepped outside and saw Nichols pushing a baby stroller. The stroller held the couple’s 22-month-old child. Nichols handed the neighbor a note with the child’s name and contact information for the child’s grandmother, then turned back into the apartment.

As the neighbor called 911, a third shot rang out—captured on the open line to the dispatcher. Nichols then walked outside and sat on the front steps, waiting for police to arrive. Officers arrested her at the scene and recovered the pistol from the porch. Lange was found inside, mortally wounded and still lying on the floor under a blanket.

According to Ramsey, Nichols initially told detectives she had acted in self-defense, claiming her husband had been abusive and had charged at her during an argument. But forensic evidence and audio recordings ultimately undercut those claims.

Crime scene investigators found bullet holes through the blanket and fragments on the pillow, confirming Lange was lying flat when he was shot. Audio from a security camera in the apartment—outfitted with a microphone—captured the entire incident, including Nichols clearing a gun jam before firing again. Importantly, the recording showed no argument occurred before the shots were fired.

In court Tuesday, Supervising Deputy District Attorney Marc Noel detailed additional evidence that contradicted Nichols’ version of events. He pointed to text messages and video recordings in which Nichols admitted to throwing objects at Lange, destroying his belongings, and even attempting to poison him by placing household cleaner on his pillow. “The forensic evidence and the defendant’s own digital trail made clear who was abusing whom,” Noel said.

Nichols’ legal team had long pursued a defense strategy rooted in Battered Woman Syndrome, but according to Ramsey, the path to trial was repeatedly delayed due to changes in legal representation and efforts to locate an expert witness. While an expert may have eventually been retained, the prosecution never received a report, and Ramsey suggested that Nichols’ experienced defense counsel may have ultimately concluded that the evidence didn’t support the claim.

At sentencing, Lange’s family and friends described him as a devoted father with a gentle demeanor—a “gentle giant,” in the words of one speaker—contrasting sharply with Nichols’ claims of domestic abuse. Prosecutors played a video in court showing Lange playing with his son the day before he was killed.

Nichols has remained in custody at the Butte County Jail since her arrest and was remanded without bail following her plea. She will now begin serving her sentence in state prison.