Questions, few answers in Marblehead murder

MARBLEHEAD – Residents along a private seaside lane of former summer cottages on Naugus Head could describe their longtime neighbors’ jobs, children and interests.But several neighbors Tuesday afternoon said loud arguments and fights and frequent police visits were all they knew about their neighbors Tanya Nichols and John Devine at 27 Sparhawk Terrace. And now Nichols is dead and Devine is charged with her murder.”They just moved here and it’s been constant fighting since they moved in,” said one resident of the neighborhood, who declined to give her name. But others in the neighborhood echoed her comments as police, curious onlookers and others passed the locked-up home where Nichols’ body was found Sunday.”This is a nice neighborhood,” the neighbor said. “I pay a lot of money to live here, you don’t expect this.”Devine, 28, pleaded not guilty Monday to a charge of murder in the death of Nichols, 51.Lynn District Court Judge Cathleen Campbell ordered Devine held without bail.Several neighbors Tuesday said the couple had been in the neighborhood for no more than a year. But they had little information about Nicholas and Devine, with several residents independently saying they were learning more about the two from news accounts of the alleged murder than they had from personal interactions.But court documents offer some insight into the relationship that police say ended in murder and a man who faces a life sentence if convicted of the alleged crime.Devine, 28, has had about a dozen cases in Lynn District Court since 2005. Many involve motor vehicle offenses. But there are also assault charges, including domestic incidents involving both Nichols and a prior girlfriend, according to court documents.In fact, at Devine’s Monday arraignment for murder in Lynn District Court, Campbell revoked Devine’s bail on a Nov. 14 case where Nichols was the alleged victim, according to court documents. Meanwhile, a witness of the November incident was the victim in a July 2010 Lynn case in which Devine pleaded guilty to assault and battery, court documents reveal.In that 2010 case, Devine pleaded guilty to hitting the victim after the latter got into a fight with Devine’s girlfriend.Devine told police the victim has been trying to instigate a fight to impress a girl who lives in the building, according to police. But the victim “dramatically flails to the ground” when speaking with Devine’s girlfriend; “then stands up, looks directly at the camera in the hallway and stands underneath it as if he knows Devine is going to come,” police reported.Nevertheless, “the image then shows Devine charge towards (the victim), punch him in the face, and (the victim) flying back into the window.”Devine pleaded guilty to assault and battery and was sentenced to a year of probation and ordered to have no contact with and not abuse the victim.In October 2010, police responded to the same building, and Devine’s girlfriend told officers Devine had held a knife to her neck.”She said that he was yelling at her but she doesn’t recall what he was saying,” Lynn Police Officer Shawn Hogan wrote in a report. “She was in fear because she thought he was going to kill her.”Devine pleaded guilty and received a two-year suspended sentence. Conditions of probation included no abuse of the victim, that Devine enter and complete a batterer’s program for persons involved in domestic abuse, and that he have no alcohol and submit to random screens, according to court documents.Nichols first appears in Devine’s court record in July. She told police July 2 that she had previously been dating Devine who “had fallen on hard times, and had previously been homeless until she took him in,” according to a report by Marblehead Police Officer Neil Comeau.Nichols told police Devine would periodically use her Volkswagen Bug and, approximately two weeks earlier, took the car and never returned, police said. Police found the car at an auto body shop whose owner told police Devine had used the c