Teacher:In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Teacher: Now, understand the problem? Solve this instance: An Oregon man accused of killing his girlfriend by pushing her off a 100-foot cliff eight years ago has pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide and coercion in her death, PEOPLE confirms. 
  
 Stephen Wagner Nichols, 42, was sentenced earlier this week to 19 months for each of the felonies as well as three years’ of probation. But he received credit for his time already in custody, meaning he will not spend any more time behind bars. 
  
 Nichols was accused of killing 23-year-old girlfriend Rhonda Casto during a hike along Oregon’s scenic Eagle Creek Trail in March 2009. Authorities alleged he pushed her off a cliff to her death in order to collect on a $1 million life insurance policy. 
  
 But Nichols’ defense attorney, Mike Arnold, says his client was “falsely accused,” and he welcomed the recent plea. 
  
 “It was a long time coming,” Arnold tells PEOPLE. “It is an amazing outcome. It is not every day that somebody charged with murder ends up with criminally negligent homicide and a probation sentence.” 
  
 The Hood River County, Oregon, District Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted the case, declined to comment. 
  
 “I am kind of numb,” says Casto’s mother, Julia Anne Simmons. “I feel awful. I think he [Nichols] should be in prison.” 
  
 Stephen Wagner Nichols Northern Oregon Regional Correctional Facilities/AP 
  
 Casto, her mom says, was “very precocious, loud and funny. She was 23 and in the prime of her life. She had everything going for her.” 
  
 Simmons believes that Nichols killed her daughter, whom he met in fall 2005, because she was gearing up to leave him and take their infant daughter, Ava, with her. 
  
 “She was going to move out,” Simmons says, “but she was trying to get up the courage to do it. She was disillusioned about Steve.” 
  
 Nichols has adamantly denied he had anything to do with Casto’s death. He told police that she accidentally slipped and he hiked down to her battered body to help her — but without a cell phone, he hiked back up to the trail, headed to the parking lot and called for help. 
  
 • Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. 
  
 Investigators initially ruled Casto’s death accidental. But six years later, in April 2014, a grand jury handed down a secret indictment against Nichols and an arrest warrant was issued for him days later. 
  
 He was arrested in February 2015 at the San Francisco International Airport, after he returned from China with his daughter. 
  
 The case made national headlines and was featured on CBS’ 48 Hours. Nicholas was scheduled to go to trial in the summer of 2018. 
  
 “This is so unfair — this is the justice system being stupid,” Simmons says of the sentencing. “I am just disgusted with the outcome.” ||||| For nearly a decade, mystery has surrounded what happened to 23-year-old aspiring model Rhonda Casto, whose lifeless body was found at the bottom of a steep ravine. 
  
 On March 16, 2009, the young mother had set out with her boyfriend, Steve Nichols, to hike the popular Eagle Creek Trail along Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge. But what was supposed to be a leisurely day hike turned into a nightmare when fire officials, responding to a 911 call from Nichols, came across the ghoulish scene of Casto’s death. 
  
 What appeared to be an accident turned into a murder investigation, bolstered by Casto’s family’s belief that Nichols — the father of Casto’s daughter, Ava — had something to do with her dying. 
  
 Adding to their suspicions was a statement Casto allegedly made before she went on the hike. 
  
 “She told my mother and my sister that ‘he is either going to give me a ring or throw me off a cliff, ha ha ha,’ ” Casto’s mother, Julia Simmons, tells reporter Maria Elena Salinas in Monday’s episode of The Real Story with Maria Elena Salinas on Investigation Discovery and exclusively previewed above. “She made a joke of it. ” 
  
 But Simmons didn’t think Casto was kidding. And after she died, family members went to the police. 
  
 “We all told him [the detective] we believe that Steve pushed her,” Simmons tells Salinas. “This is not an accident.” 
  
 Simmons says authorities were very interested in what the family had to say. At the time, however, she says she didn’t confront Nichols with her allegations: “Police wouldn’t let me see him, because they knew I was enraged.” 
  
 Rhonda Cast Source: Rhonda Casto - Justice/Facebook 
  
 In February 2015, nearly six years after Casto died, Nichols was arrested and charged with killing her — accused of pushing her off the 100-foot cliff so he could collect a $1-million life insurance policy. 
  
 Authorities also pointed to an alleged inappropriate relationship with Casto’s underage sister and a previous incident where Nichols was accused of attempting to push his then-wife off a balcony in China in 2003. 
  
 He denied all of these claims and the case encountered multiple legal obstacles as it proceeded. 
  
 In February 2017, the Oregon Supreme Court ruled a three-hour police interview with Nichols after his arrest was inadmissible. Adding to the prosecution’s problems was the fact that the former lead detective, who had retired in 2012, destroyed evidence on his computer, including crime scene and autopsy photos and trail-head fee envelopes from potential witnesses. 
  
 • Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. 
  
 In May 2017, in a move that angered Casto’s family, prosecutors dropped the murder charge against Nichols. In return, he pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide and coercion. 
  
 According to his plea, Nichols received three years’ of probation, with credit for 19 months of jail time. 
  
 Nichols still maintains he had nothing to do with Casto’s death. When confronted by Salinas about her alleged prophetic words to her family, he responded: “The simple answer is I don’t think she ever actually said that.” 
  
 “She was so happy,” Nichols told PEOPLE in a previous interview about the day the couple went for a hike. 
  
 Steve Nichols Northern Oregon Regional Correctional Facilities/AP 
  
 Though Nichols said he doesn’t remember much about what happened, he did recall Casto running along the narrow trail with a towel over her shoulders, like “Superwoman,” and he said he witnessed her fall. 
  
 He tried to help her, he said — sliding down the ravine and trying to swim across a freezing creek to get to her. However, by the time he reached her body, he said, he collapsed on top of her from exhaustion and hypothermia. 
  
 Nichols said he believes prescription drugs played a part in Casto’s death, which he called an accident, and he claimed he later discovered she was using marijuana and also taking medication to lose weight and for depression. 
  
 But Simmons doesn’t buy Nichols’ story and described her daughter’s relationship with him as volatile, though he said they “hardly ever fought.” 
  
 Simmons says Casto was considering ending things with him before she died. 
  
 “She was going to move out, but she was trying to get up the courage to do it,” Simmons previously told PEOPLE. “She was worried about not having enough money to support Ava.” 
  
 The Real Story with Maria Elena Salinas airs Monday (10 p.m. ET) on Investigation Discovery. ||||| The last words an Oregon woman spoke to her family included a joke about being murdered, before she died while hiking with her boyfriend in 2009. 
  
 Julia Simmons, the mother of Rhonda Casto, shared what her daughter said with Maria Elena SLaines of Investigative Discovery's The Real Story, in an interview that airs on Monday. 
  
 Casto's last words to her grandmother and aunt before embarking on the Eagle Creek Trail along Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge on March 16, 2009, with Stephen Nichols were supposedly, 'He is either going to give me a ring or throw me off a cliff, ha ha ha,' Simmons said. 
  
 Nichols, who was first charged with murder in 2015 for Casto's death, instead pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide and coercion in May 2017, and was sentenced to three years’ of probation, with credit for 19 months of jail time. 
  
 Casto and Nichols shared a daugther, named Ava. 
  
 The last words Rhonda Casto (right) spoke to her family included a joke about being murdered, before she died while hiking with her boyfriend, Stephen Nichols (left) in Oregon in 2009 
  
 The plea deal for Nichols came after the Oregon Supreme Court ruled in March 2017 that a detective should have stopped interrogating Nichols when the suspect said he did not want to discuss Casto’s death. 
  
 The interview occurred shortly after Nichols’ February 2015 arrest at San Francisco International Airport, nearly six years after his partner’s death. 
  
 A Hood River County judge had ruled the statement inadmissible, but the state appealed to the higher court, and lost. 
  
 Nichols, who has maintained he had nothing to do with Casto's death, told People magazine, 'She was so happy' on the day of the hike. 
  
 When asked about what she allegedly said to her family that day, he said, 'The simple answer is I don’t think she ever actually said that.' 
  
 But Simmons paints a different picture, having previously told People, 'She was going to move out, but she was trying to get up the courage to do it.' 
  
 Simmons added: 'She was worried about not having enough money to support Ava.' 
  
 Nichols, then a recently divorced 30-year-old day trader, met Casto, a 20-year-old aspiring model, in 2005 after Casto's mother introduced them 
  
 Nichols was originally charged with murder in 2015, but that charge was dropped when he took a plea deal that landed him three years’ of probation, with credit for 19 months of jail time 
  
 On the day Casto dies, Nichols called 911 at around 6pm that night to report Casto's 100-foot-fall to her death. 
  
 He has said that he slid down the ravine toward her, and had to cross an icy creek to reach her body, but by the time he got there he collapsed on top of her, overcome with exhaustion and hypothermia. 
  
 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, then working as a day trader, increased Casto’s life insurance policy to $1 million. 
  
 Court documents show Nichols and Casto became romantically involved in 2005, according to The Oregonian. 
  
 Casto and Nichols reportedly both took out $1 million life insurance policies on each other shortly before her untimely death in March 2009 
  
 Treacherous path: The hiking trail where Casto fell to her death has a few narrow sections that drop off on one side into a ravine 
  
 In an interview with CBS' 48 Hours, 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, and Casto was 20 at the time. 
  
 'Everything about her was impressive,' Nichols said in the March 2015 interview, adding, 'and I just immediately fell in love with her.' 
  
 Before long, Casto moved into Nichols' home, and three years later they welcomed their baby daughter, who is now seven. 
  
 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 contingent beneficiary. 
  
 Nichols eventually agreed to split the money with Casto's mother and with the estate of his daughter. 
  
 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 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. 
  
 Nichols said that day started off as a nice day but the weather turned inclement as the couple were making their 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 would later claim that the 23-year-old mom was high that afternoon, was acting silly and running on the slick trail before disaster struck. 
  
 The Real Story with Maria Elena Salinas airs on Monday at 10.00pm Eastern on Investigation Discovery. |||||
Student:
Rhonda Casto's last words to family members before embarking on a scenic hike with boyfriend Stephen Nichols: "He is either going to give me a ring or throw me off a cliff, ha ha ha." A few hours later she was dead. This week, Nichols was sentenced to time already served (19 months in jail) and three years' probation, reports People. In March 2009, Casto, 23, was hiking with Nichols on a trail in the Columbia River Gorge when she fell 100 feet to her death. Prosecutors believe Nichols killed the aspiring model for her $1 million life insurance policy. Her mother thinks he killed her because Casto was planning move out and take their one-year-old daughter. "She was trying to get up the courage to do it," says Julia Simmons. "She was disillusioned about Steve." The fall was initially ruled an accident, then in 2015 Nichols, 42, was charged with murder, recalls the Daily Mail. In 2017 prosecutors dropped the murder charge and replaced it with criminally negligent homicide and coercion, after a judge ruled that a detective had acted improperly during an interview. Nichols has denied any responsibility for Casto’s death. He told police that Casto accidentally slipped and fell, and he hiked down the hill to help her, but didn’t have a cell phone to alert authorities. He eventually hiked back to the parking lot where he called for help. Of the sentence, Casto's mother tells People, "This is the justice system being stupid … I am just disgusted with the outcome."