Nicole Finn's daughter: 'My mom knew I was hungry because I passed out'

LEE ROOD   | The Des Moines Register

The 15-year-old girl who took the stand Thursday morning in Nicole Finn's murder trial appeared poised and healthy.

But there was a time last year, after her mother had kept her out of school for months, when Mikayla Finn said she looked "nasty," peed in her bedroom for lack of bathroom access and became weak because she was so hungry.

Mikayla Finn testified Thursday that she told her mother and her brother Nathan "quite a lot" how hungry she was.

"I knew my mom knew I was hungry because I passed out," Mikayla, now living in foster care, testified.

She said her mother told her, "That's what happens when you don't eat or drink for a day."

"Did you want to eat?" prosecutor Nan Horvat asked her.

"Yes," Mikayla replied.

Nicole Finn, 43, faces possible life in prison if convicted of murder and kidnapping. She's accused of starving her adopted daughter Natalie until she died Oct. 24 and abusing adopted siblings Jaden, now 16, and Mikayla, 15, who were severely malnourished.

The divorced mother of five children — four adopted — has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors are expected to rest their case sometime Friday. Defense lawyers have not said whether Nicole Finn will take the stand.

Mikayla Finn told jurors her mother used to treat her like "mommy's little girl" because she was the youngest of five in the Finn family.

But she said that changed as she grew older.

Mikayla said she liked going to Stilwell Junior High because she made friends easily, but she was dyslexic.