A Redding man who said he was in “a relationship” with Nikki McCain testified Thursday that the Shasta County woman came to his house severely beaten one evening in the summer of 2023 and told him that her husband, Tyler McCain, had “done horrible things to her.”
Nikki McCain’s “face was purple, her whole face was swollen. She had bruises everywhere,” said Luis Barajas during a court hearing on the third day of proceedings for Tyler McCain, who is charged with murdering his wife.
According to his testimony, Barajas said he met Nikki and Tyler McCain when they came into the Anderson cell phone store where he worked to buy a phone in 2023.
At that time, Barajas said he and Nikki McCain were “nothing more than just friends.”
“She would just come in a lot and ask questions about the phone,” said Barajas.
Over time, he said, they “started getting closer” and “sexual,” with Nikki McCain coming over to his house to stay the night several times a week, once for a four-week stretch.
Barajas said Nikki McCain told him that she and her husband were in the process of getting a divorce.
“I was patient. I was waiting. We were going to try to be together” after she and her husband divorced, said Barajas.
“It was fine with me,” he said about their arrangement. “She still had just about all her things at Mr. McCain’s, so there was no reason for me to believe she’d move in completely. Getting out of a relationship is hard, especially when you’ve been together 10 years.”
Barajas said one evening in August, Nikki McCain came to his house and “pounded on the garage door,” soaked, wearing a bathrobe and showing multiple bruises.
Barajas said she told him that Tyler McCain “had done horrible things to her,” including putting a towel over her face and pouring on water, making her feel like she was suffocating. Barajas said Nikki McCain told him that her husband had hit her with something, strangled her and “held her captive for hours.”
“She shook. She could barely get the words out,” Barajas said of how Nikki McCain appeared that evening.
Testimony from Barajas is scheduled to continue on Tuesday morning, Sept. 16 when the preliminary hearing is scheduled to resume before Judge Thomas L. Bender at Shasta County Superior Court in Redding.
Investigators maintain that Tyler McCain killed Nikki McCain to prevent her from testifying in a domestic violence case she filed against him in December 2023. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The Shasta County woman was last seen on May 18, 2024 and investigators determined she was a homicide victim on March 14, 2025.
While Nikki McCain’s body has not been found, the District Attorney’s Office has said that California law does not require her body to be located in order to prove the crime of murder.
Michele Chandler covers dining, food, public safety and whatever else comes up for the Redding Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. Accepts story tips at 530-338-7753 and at mrchandler@gannett.com. Please support our entire newsroom’s commitment to public service journalism by subscribing today.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Man alleging ‘relationship’ with Nikki McCain testifies in Tyler McCain murder case
Reporting by Michele Chandler, Redding Record Searchlight / Redding Record Searchlight
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