DENVER (CN) — A Denver judge ruled on Friday there was probable cause for a first-degree murder charge against a former English professor accused of murdering his wife, an FBI analyst who was found dead beside their two-month-old baby.
“Clearly from the extent and the nature of the injuries throughout the body, the substantial trauma to her face and her head, there is certainly probable cause that there was an intention to inflict death,” said Second Judicial District Judge Martin Egelhoff from the bench.
On July 29, 2024, Seorin Kim was found dead beside her infant daughter Leslie’s bassinet with blunt force injuries to her head and face. Two-month-old Leslie Kim was also dead.
“Ms. Kim was severely beaten across every inch of her body. There were three skull fractures, blood in the lungs, bruising throughout her body, this is not a beating that is impulsive, this is not one hit or two hits, this is a sustained beating,” Deputy District Attorney Anthony Santos told the court Friday.
Seorin Kim’s husband, Nicholas Myklebust, says he called 911 after he awoke on the couch to find the bodies. With the guidance of paramedics, Myklebust tried to perform CPR on his daughter but was unable to revive her.
An autopsy found Kim died from blunt force trauma and her death was ruled a homicide. The coroner has yet to determine a cause of death for Leslie Kim.
In 2021, the couple’s first child died from cranial injuries nine days after birth. Myklebust has not been charged with the death of either infant.
Shortly after reporting the deaths, police arrested Myklebust. Prosecutors charged Myklebust in August 2024 with his wife’s murder.
During the Friday hearing, Denver Police Department homicide detective Ernest Sandoval recalled scratches found on Myklebust’s body. Myklebust attributed the wounds to the skin condition psoriasis.
Sandoval walked the court through blood found throughout the couple’s apartment, and evidence that it had been cleaned up prior to law enforcement arriving, with clean sheets and pillows placed over bloodstains on the bed.
Myklebust told Sandoval he met his wife at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and that they had moved to Austin before coming to Denver. Asked about their relationship, Myklebust told police that all relationships have issues but there was nothing they couldn’t work through and that they tried never to go to sleep angry at each other.
Myklebust told police he and his wife had been taking turns sleeping with the baby since she had been fussy and was easily awoken.
At first, Myklebust told first responders, “his wife ‘must have fallen from a step stool,’” a theory police quickly rejected given the extent of her injuries.
“I don’t think they’ve proven that he did anything other than call 911, ask what to do, and then perform life-saving measures that were dictated after the phone,” said public defender Sara Wafai.
Wafai questioned the logic of prosecutors saying Kim’s body was warm and had a pulse when paramedics arrived, along with the assertion that Myklebust had time to wash and change the bed sheets before police arrived.
“In evaluating the evidence at this stage of the proceedings, the court is required to draw all inferences in the light most favorable to the prosecutors,” Egelhoff said. “It’s not the court’s role to take the defense’s evidence over the people’s evidence.”
Myklebust taught English at Regis University in Denver.
Kim, 44, had worked as a forensic accountant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and had files at home that agents came to collect.
Kim’s parents filed a wrongful death suit against Myklebust in December 2024, describing her as a disciplined, meticulous woman who grew up loving Disney musicals, red apple jelly beans and music.
Myklebust returns to court for arraignment on May 8.