For nearly 16 years, she said, everyone involved was fine with an arrangement that had Nicole living with her then-boyfriend Douglas Guill, and Guill's wife and children also living on his property in Heron.
But when Douglas told his family that, now that his two children were in their 20s and he was having health problems, that he intended to leave everything to his girlfriend in the event that he died, things changed.
When Candace Guill told Douglas that their daughter had called the day after she moved to Sandpoint, Idaho, and they asked Candace what the daughter had said, Candace replied, “Is he dead yet?”
Douglas and Nicole asked her to write a letter stating that, which Nicole said Candace did.
Candace later gave them a letter - allegedly voluntarily - that said, in part, “I know (their daughter) has been pursuing your body for years and I wanted to thank you for resisting and being such a good dad.”
Candace has testified Douglas forced her to write the letters.
Prosecutors allege that 55-year-old Douglas Guill - charged with two counts of incest, two counts of rape and one count of sexual abuse - repeatedly raped his now 23-year-old daughter over a 14-year period, and sexually abused her for 16 years.
The daughter testified last week that the sexual encounters, which she said began with inappropriate touching when she was 6 and attempts at intercourse when she was 8, eventually grew to include her father forcing her to engage in three-way sex with him and Nicole by the time the daughter was a teenager.
She finally “ran away from home” at the age of 22.
Had she ever had sex with Douglas Guill's daughter, defense attorney Mike Sherwood asked Nicole.
“No. Never,” Nicole said.
Had she ever witnessed Douglas touch his daughter inappropriately?
“No,” she answered.
Had she ever heard Douglas suggest anything inappropriate to the daughter?
“Never.”
The questions became more sexually explicit, and Nicole denied them one by one.
She indicated she should know. Nicole testified she and Douglas were virtually inseparable - until their arrest last year - since 1992, when she moved from Boise, Idaho, to Heron at the age of 21 to live with Douglas Guill, his wife Candace and their daughter and son.
How inseparable? The couple stayed together even when one of them had to go to the bathroom, Nicole testified.
“We were together all the time,” Nicole said, adding, “It's not like we were Siamese twins.”
She said because other people were speaking “complete untruths” about Douglas, she remained where she could see him even when he went to the bathroom so that “if others say things that aren't true, I can testify and say that's not true.”
On re-direct, Nicole said that she and Douglas did so because of an incident that did not involve Candace or the children.
Nicole first met her husband, whom she married in 2006, more than 30 years ago when she was 6 years old and he was 24. They had little contact then, she said, nor again 10 years later when they met again.
Nicole said the first time they had extensive contact with each other was when she visited the Guills' property in Heron for three to five days over the Fourth of July, 1992.
She and Douglas - who say they are born-again Christians and often speak in tongues when they pray - met again later that month in McCall, Idaho, for nine days. She then returned to Boise, packed up some of her belongings and moved to Heron to live with the Guills.
“You were married at the time?” Montana Assistant Attorney General Dan Guzynski asked her, “and Douglas was married, too?”
When she answered yes, he noted their Christian beliefs evidently didn't rule out adultery.
Nicole said because Candace Guill had had an affair (Candace testified her husband asked her to and arranged it), that Douglas and Candace had reached an agreement.
The couple would remain married so the children wouldn't have to go through a divorce, and would remain on the same property in Heron where Douglas could support them all - but otherwise the couple would live separate lives.
Nicole testified it was she and Douglas, and not Candace, who lived in an outbuilding called the storehouse, for an extended period of time.
She said Candace and the children were free to come and go as they pleased - and often did. The children could have attended public school in Noxon, but chose to be home-schooled by their mother, Nicole said.
Candace has testified Douglas would not allow them to go to school in Noxon because of the school's mascot. Noxon athletic teams are known as the Red Devils.
Candace had a credit card in her name, Nicole said, and gas cards in the name of her husband's business. Candace had access to all the eight or so vehicles on the property and the keys to them. She had access to a safe in the home during the last several years that always contained between $10,000 and $20,000 in cash.
Still, the suggestion to the jury was, no one left until - after what Nicole said were two strokes and a heart attack Douglas suffered - Douglas announced he wanted to leave everything to Nicole.
Nicole also refuted testimony that Douglas physically attacked Candace or Jacob. There have been no allegations he attacked his daughter any way except sexually.
Neither Douglas nor Candace sought a divorce until the children were gone - the daughter left on Sept. 11, 2006, seeking help in Sandpoint, and Jacob moved out less than a month later - because they were keeping their word to their children that they would remain married until both kids were 18, Nicole said.
Guzynski's cross-examination focused on why Candace and the daughter would cook up an elaborate story about years of incest and rape in an effort to cover up a plot to cause Douglas to die of a heart attack, instead of Candace simply demanding half of Douglas Guill's assets in a divorce.
The couple did divorce after the children left. Candace originally signed away her rights to any of Douglas' property.
That settlement has since been overturned by a District Court, which awarded her more than $500,000. That ruling is under appeal to the Montana Supreme Court.
Defense attorney Sherwood has noted that Candace Guill is represented in that case by former Sanders County Attorney Bob Zimmerman, who originally filed the charges against Douglas and Nicole Guill.
Charged with two counts of felony assault and one count of misdemeanor assault, Nicole Guill will be tried separately.
Originally scheduled to be over last week, the trial is now expected to last until at least Thursday, if not longer. It resumes Tuesday at 9 a.m. in the Sanders County Courthouse, but will not reconvene after that until Thursday afternoon, to allow presiding District Judge Deborah Kim Christopher to deal with a full docket in Lake County.
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