COLORADO SPRINGS — Timothy Nicholls was alternately called a drug addict without a conscience and a loving father by prosecutors and his defense attorney as his trial began today for allegedly setting the house fire that killed his three children in 2003.

Nicholls, a 36-year-old who owned a construction subcontracting business, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder and arson in connection with the fire that destroyed his house early March 7, 2003, killing his stepson, Jay, 11, and daughters Sophia, 5, and Sierra, 3.

Deborah Nicholls, his wife, is not charged with the murders but faces trial later this year on charges of drug possession and attempting to defraud an insurance company.

Prosecuting attorney Will Bain told the jury in his opening statement that Timothy and Deborah Nicholls had become addicted to methamphetamine and were in debt to drug dealers who had threatened their lives days before Timothy Nicholls set their house afire to collect insurance money.

But Nicholls' attorney Dennis Hartley called the prosecution's charges a "myth" and said the evidence does not support arson. Testimony is expected to begin this afternoon.