A California man, driven to a violent breaking point by a family ultimatum, brutally ended the lives of his parents and their housekeeper in a tragic episode that spanned several days. The catalyst for Camden Burton Nicholson’s deadly spree was his refusal to enter a mental health and addiction treatment facility, as demanded by his parents.

In a chilling conclusion to this tragic story, Nicholson, 34, was convicted on three counts of first-degree murder for the 2019 killings of his father Richard, mother Kim, and their housekeeper, Maria Morse. The murders took place in their luxurious $6 million residence within a gated community in Newport Beach, as confirmed by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

Once regarded as a typical and content child, Nicholson’s demeanor shifted drastically post-adolescence. Following a nine-month Mormon mission at the age of 19, he returned home exhibiting severe depression and erratic behavior.

His family became increasingly worried about his unpredictable actions, which included drug abuse, steroid use, excessive consumption of pornography, and interactions with escort services, as reported by KTLA.

“In a very short span, he transformed from a Boy Scout into someone involved with marijuana, steroids, escorts—everything,” testified his brother, Cavin Nicholson, during the trial, as noted by the Los Angeles Times.

In defense of his kin, Cavin Nicholson said his mother was verbally abusive, diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and said things “a mentally ill person should not hear,” — potentially setting off his brother.

The parents hired a private detective to find Camden Nicholson after he lashed out against them and disappeared by stealing his mother’s car in December 2018.

“They feared he might have committed suicide or was in the hospital somewhere,” the private detective told KTLA.

Nicholson reappeared at a Marriott hotel when he began spending lavishly with his father’s credit card. The card was subsequently denied and Nicholson’s parents urged for him to return home and seek help.

Nicholson was admitted into a hospital on Feb. 5, 2019 on a 72-hour involuntary psychiatric hold where he told doctors his parents were “satanic” and would “try to find me and classify me as insane,” according to the LA Times. 

Doctors were afraid to discharge him, but Nicholson was released at 4:11 p.m. on Feb. 11 and returned home to carry out the brutal killings.

The madman first confronted his 64-year-old father at the home at around 7 p.m., stabbing him repeatedly, officials said.

“At some point, Richard had to have realized it was Camden,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Dave Porter said in court. “He had to have known it was his own son who was killing him.”

Nicholson’s mother returned home at around 8:44 p.m., when he attacked the 61-year-old woman, striking her with a 20-pound silver statue before stabbing her multiple times and leaving her to die on the garage floor.

Morse, 57, arrived at the house the next morning for her cleaning shift but was attacked by the knife-wielding maniac, who stabbed her repeatedly and slit her throat before stuffing her body into a large plastic bin in the pantry, officials found.

“Why else would you do that, unless you knew exactly what you did was wrong and you didn’t want it discovered?” Porter asked. “There are actions by this defendant that aren’t consistent with a psychotic break.”

The then-27-year-old took his father’s car that night and went on a shopping spree around Santa Ana, spending hundreds at a marijuana dispensary and buying sex toys.

Using his father’s car, Nicholson drove to a medical center in Irvine and called 911, saying he killed his parents in self-defense because they were trying to kill him.

Police discovered the gruesome scene at the home while conducting a welfare check on the couple and found the three victims fatally stabbed with blood throughout the home.

On Wednesday, an Orange County jury found Nicholson guilty of the special circumstance of committing multiple murders along with the three first-degree murder charges.

The case entered a sanity phase on Thursday, as officials will determine if Nicholson was criminally insane during the triple murders.

Porter didn’t deny Nicholson may have suffered from mental illnesses but he was never diagnosed with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. He had received treatment for autism spectrum disorder, the LA Times reported.

Nicholson will either be sentenced to life in prison without parole or be sent to a mental facility depending on the results of the sanity phase.