Brian Nichols

Brian Gene Nichols
File:Brian Nichols.jpg Nichols after his surrender on March 12, 2005
Status	Incarcerated, pending trial
Criminal charge	murder, kidnapping, robbery, aggravated assault on a police officer, battery, theft, carjacking, rape and escape.
Penalty	Pending

Brian Gene Nichols (born December 10, 1971) is known for his escape and alleged killing spree in the Fulton county courthouse in Atlanta, Georgia on March 11, 2005.

Early life

What little is known about Nichols' early life is that he came from a middle class family. He went to but did not receive his high school diploma in 1989 from the Cardinal Gibbons School in Baltimore, Maryland and attended college at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, for three semesters from 1989 to 1990. At that time, he was also on their football team. Berks County records show that Nichols had been arrested three times from 1990 to 1991 on charges ranging from disorderly conduct to making threats. After his brief stay at Kutztown, Nichols went to Newberry College from 1992 to 1993, and played football there. Athletic spokesman Ryan Gross said that during that time Nichols was kicked off the football team for stealing from a dorm room.

Nichols was a computer engineer working for UPS. According to his brother, Nichols earned a six-figure income and regularly attended church.

He was arrested after being charged with the brutal assault of his former girlfriend of 8 years after their break up. Nichols forced his way into her home, bound her with duct tape at gun point and raped her. He was charged with rape, aggravated sodomy and false imprisonment. The first case had ended in a mistrial with a hung jury. Nichols had told people in the courthouse "I'm not going to go lying down" when he learned that he would be retried. The case was retried the next week and the tension heightened 2 days before the crime spree when deputies escorting Nichols from the courthouse to his jail cell noticed something in his shoes. They found two sharp "shanks," common jailhouse weapons fashioned out of metal which possibly came from a door hinge. Nichols also taunted Assistant District Attorney Gayle Abramson during the retrial by saying "you're doing a better job this time" and he was apparently aware that his case was going poorly. The actions prompted Judge Barnes to have a meeting the day before the escape with counsel and he asked for extra security during Nichols scheduled testimony that Friday since the trial should conclude and the case sent to the jury. Nichols would have faced life in prison if convicted.

The shootings and escape

The State of Georgia alleges the following events took place on March 11, 2005: After a 51-year old female sheriff's deputy, 5'2" Cynthia Hall, removed his handcuffs so that he could change into civilian clothes in preparation for a court appearance, Nichols attacked the deputy and took her side arm, weapon magazines and keys. According to hospital sources, the deputy suffered bruising to her brain and some fractures around her face. After the attack, her condition was reported as critical, but she survived. Deputy Hall's injuries were so severe that Grady Memorial Hospital Doctors initially believed that she sustained a gunshot wound to the face.

Nichols then crossed over to the old courthouse via a skybridge, where he entered the private chambers of Judge Rowland W. Barnes. While there, he encountered Sgt. Grantley White and also took his weapon. Nichols then entered courtroom 8-F from a door behind the judge's bench, where Barnes was presiding over motions in a civil trial, and shot him at close range in the back of the head. Nichols then shot Julie Brandau, the court reporter in the head when she stood up to attend to Judge Barnes. Nichols ordered bailiffs to handcuff everyone else before running out of the courtroom, located on the eighth floor, and out through a stairwell. He made his way down 8 floors and fled out of the courthouse. Sgt. Hoyt Teasley pursued him outside and was shot by Nichols. Barnes and the court reporter died at the scene and the deputy was pronounced DOA from a single wound in his abdomen at Grady Memorial Hospital.

During his escape Nichols tried to carjack at least three vehicles, ending up in a multi-level parking structure for Atlanta's Underground tourist area. He first took a tow truck at gunpoint outside the courtroom. Later he hijacked a 1987 Honda Accord from Don O'Briant, a reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Nichols initially ordered him into the trunk at gun point. O'Briant refused, and was injured in the carjacking when he was pistol-whiped. He sustained a broken wrist and received 15 stitches above his eye.

Approximately 14 hours later, a security guard discovered the Honda on the first level of the same parking deck from which it was reported stolen, leaving police without a clue as to how he fled from the downtown Atlanta area. Investigators suspected Nichols may have abandoned the car after spotting an easier target, taking the owner with him to avoid being reported. Police were trying to determine if there were any missing persons or stolen vehicle reported from the area, but their efforts may be hampered by the fact that the NCAA Southeastern Conference basketball tournament was taking place a few blocks away and thousands of out-of-town visitors were in the area at the time.

Nichols was featured on America's Most Wanted that night and the manhunt expanded.

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard's office later announced that a 911 call had been received from a man claiming to be Nichols, who threatened to kill Assistant District Attorney Gayle Abramson who was prosecuting his rape case.

Manhunt and capture

On Saturday March 12th, 2005 Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue announced that there was a reward of approximately $65,000 for information leading to Nichols' arrest.

Later that morning it was reported that a U.S. Customs Agent, identified as David Wilhelm, was shot and killed at a home he was renovating in the Buckhead section of Atlanta late on March 11th. Agent Wilhelm's badge, gun and blue Chevroletpickup truck were stolen.

Around 2am on March 12th Nichols approached a woman named Ashley Smith at the Bridgewater Apartments in Duluth, Georgia, approximately 27 miles north of Atlanta in Gwinnett County. Nichols reportedly told her that he was a wanted man. He then forced her into the bathroom and tied her up. He placed a hand towel over her head while he took a shower (so that she wouldn't have to watch him). She was sitting on a stool with the towel around her eyes when she told him about her five-year-old daughter, Paige. Thinking she may never see her daughter again, she tried to reason with him.

Smith was held hostage for several hours in her own apartment, during which time Nichols requested marijuana, but Smith told him she only had "ice" (methamphetamine). In her book Unlikely Angel: The Untold Story of the Atlanta Hostage Hero, Smith revealed that she “had been struggling with a methamphetamine addiction when she was taken hostage,” and the last time she used meth “was 36 hours before Nichols held a gun to her and entered her home. Nichols wanted her to use the drug with him, but she refused.” Instead, she chose to read to him from the Bible and Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life. She tried to convince Nichols to turn himself in by sharing with him how her husband "had died in her arms four years earlier after being stabbed during a brawl." Smith also writes that she asked Nichols “if he wanted to see the danger of drugs and lifted up her tank top several inches to reveal a five-inch scar down the center of her torso — the aftermath of a car wreck caused by drug-induced psychosis. She says she let go of the steering wheel when she heard a voice saying, ‘Let go and let God.’” When news of his crimes was reported on television, Nichols looked to the ceiling and asked the Lord to forgive him. In the morning Smith cooked breakfast for Nichols.

When Nichols let Smith leave her apartment that morning to visit her daughter, Smith called 9-1-1 at 9:50am, and Gwinnette Police, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms responded to the scene. The Gwinnett SWAT team quickly surrounded the apartment. After some time, Nichols surrendered peacefully to the SWAT Team and was quickly taken away. Atlanta police chief Richard Pennington admitted surprise that Nichols surrendered peacefully.

Police initially thought that Smith may have had a prior relationship with Nichols, but later decided that she was chosen at random. "She's a remarkable lady," said Maj. Bart Hulsey, commander of Gwinnett County's SWAT team. "She managed to make a rapport with him and made herself a person, not just an object, and she has an amazing capability for survival." But Smith downplayed her efforts and later said "Throughout my time with Mr. Nichols, I continued to rely [on] my faith in God. God has helped me through tough times before, and he'll help me now," she told reporters in Augusta, Georgia. "It's natural to focus on the conclusion of any story, but my role was really very small in the grand scheme of things. The real heroes were the judicial and law enforcement officials who gave their lives and those who risked their lives to bring this to an end," she said.

After his arrest, Nichols was taken to a FBI field office in Decatur, Georgia where he was interviewed by FBI agents later that day. Nichols confessed on video and detailed his crimes, including the four killings. He describes how he flung the much smaller female deputy into the concrete wall like a rag doll and grabbed her gun. Then, instead of escaping down nearby stairs, he ran across a skybridge to hunt down the judge in his rape case.

He said Barnes was nice, but part of a larger system of injustice. He also killed the judge's court reporter when she stood to check on the judge. He said he shot the sheriff's sergeant outside the courthouse so he could escape and he later shot the federal agent in Buckhead while stealing his car.

He also admitted holding a Ashley Smith hostage in her apartment before he surrendered.

"I was actually very impressed that they didn't shoot me when I walked out the door," Nichols told police in the videotaped interview on March 12, 2005.

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said he saw Nichols shortly after he was taken into custody and he appeared to be "someone who was proud of what he had done -- that he did not show remorse."

On March 25th 2005 Ashley Smith received $70,000 in reward money for helping with Nichols capture. Smith received $25,000 from the U.S. Marshals Office, $20,000 from the FBI, $10,000 from Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue's office, $5,000 from the Georgia Sheriffs' Association, $5,000 from the Georgia Fraternal Order of Police and $5,000 from the city of Atlanta. She previously received $2,500 from the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police.

Indictment

On May 5, 2005, he was indicted by a Fulton County grand jury on 54 counts including murder, kidnapping, robbery, aggravated assault on a police officer, battery, theft, carjacking, and escape from authorities.[1]

Nichols subsequently pled not guilty to the charges on May 17. Jury selection began in January 2007. Nichols' attorneys disclosed at that time that they wanted to defend Nichols on the basis of mental health. They did not disclose any further information. Nichols' pre-trial hearing commenced mid-September 2007. His defense attorneys submitted that they were not receiving enough funding. Nichols' attorneys attributed this to the Georgia legislature limiting state funding for defense attorneys, the prosecution continuing to interview witnesses (which the defense then must interview) and the complication of factoring in the mental health defense. His trial was expected to commence October 2, 2007, but was delayed (see Trial delayed, below).

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard announced he would seek the death penalty. Nichols is expected to become Georgia's most expensive defendant, with his case likely topping $5 million for the prosecution and defense combined. The judge and Standards Council assigned Nichols four attorneys.

The prosecution secured a 54-count indictment and has more than 300 people on its witness list. That's the most of any death penalty case that Mears, who has written books on the death penalty in Georgia, is aware of in his 24-year career.

The trial also could become one of the longest death penalty cases in the state's history, lasting up to seven months instead of the usual four to six weeks.

Nichols' family reaction

Nichols' parents were not available for immediate reaction, as they were traveling abroad in Africa where Nichols' mother works. She is a former agent for the Internal Revenue Service and is helping set up a tax system. Nichols' father is retired from the restaurant business. She became aware of her son's case via a CNN broadcast while in Tanzania. She remains in contact with Nichols' criminal attorney Barry Hazen via email.

Nichols' brother Mark was very upset, quoting "Everyone knows me as the brother of the person who killed those people".

"The only thing I can say is, our hearts go out to the people in Georgia," said Reginald Smalls, Nichols' uncle. "I really mean that ... Brian is a nice young man, as far as we know. I don't know what happened."

Childhood friend Maxine Glover described Nichols as a "normal young child playing with the other kids in the block, very well mannered, had no problems with him at all".

His daughter who is in high school says that she was shocked.

Nichols' father Gene Nichols was interviewed at the start of the death penalty trial, said he has been surrounded by sadness every day since the March 11, 2005, killings.

"It never leaves you," he said Friday. "I don't think it's going to get any better. You try to go to sleep at night, and if you can, that's the only time it leaves you." Gene Nichols said he and his wife have also reached out to the widow of Judge Barnes to let her know they are sorry for her loss.

Courthouse security concerns

The shooting deaths of three people in a courthouse by Nichols led to intense debate about the state of security in public buildings, especially courtrooms.

The Fulton County Courthouse Security Commission paneled a Security Evaluation Subcommittee to make recommendations to recommend and implement security changes.[2]

An episode of American Justice titled "Murder in the Court" deals with famous legal-related murders including the one done by Brian Nichols and the attack on the Chicago federal judge.

Trial delayed

Over 3 years after the shooting, Nichols' trial has yet to begin. It was reported on January 30, 2008, that Superior Court Judge Hilton Fuller, who took on the case after local judges recused themselves due to their friendship with the murdered judge, has himself decided to step down. Fuller had suspended the trial indefinitely because the state public defender's office, amid a budget crunch, had cut off funding to Nichols' lawyers. He agreed to be interviewed by CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, who incorporated remarks made during the interview into an article subsequently published in the January 30 issue of The New Yorker. In it, Fuller said the "only defense" open to Nichols' defense attorneys was an insanity defense, "because everyone in the world knows he did it."

In his letter to the chief judge for Fulton County Superior Court, Judge Fuller stated that "judicial impartiality, real and perceived, is a critical element of the trial process," and "in light of recent media reports, I am no longer hopeful that I can provide a trial perceived to be fair to both the state and the accused."

Nichols' eventual trial was scheduled to take place in July in the very courtroom where two of his murders were committed, but Superior Court Judge James Bodiford, brought in from nearby Cobb County, ruled that "fundamental fairness" made it necessary to move the trial to another location in Fulton County within 10 days. [3]

On Monday, September 22, 2008 Nichols'trial began in courtroom 6B of the Atlanta Municipal Court. [4]

See also

• Floyd Allen

External links

• Recording of Gwinnett County Police capturing Nichols
• Man Flees After Killing Judge and 2 Others at Atlanta Court (subscription required)
• Defendant overpowers deputy, kills 3
• "Judge, Two Others Killed in Atlanta Courthouse Shooting; Manhunt Continues"
• Grand Jury Indicts Nichols
• Hostage Gave Meth to Atlanta Fugitive
• Lawyers for Brian Nichols Back in Court for Motions article on the trial (April 17, 2006)
• State of the trial 2007
• USA Today's report on the incident
• Article update from the New Yorker, February 4, 2008