Brian Nichols
Encyclopedia
Brian Gene Nichols is known for his escape and killing spree in the Fulton County
Fulton County, Georgia
Fulton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. Its county seat is Atlanta, the state capital since 1868 and the principal county of the Atlanta metropolitan area...

 courthouse
Courthouse
A courthouse is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English speaking countries, buildings which house courts of law are simply...

 in Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...

 on March 11, 2005. Nichols was on trial for rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...

 when he escaped from custody and murdered the judge presiding over his trial, a court reporter, a Sheriff's Deputy and later a Federal agent. A large-scale manhunt was launched in the metropolitan Atlanta area and Nichols was taken into custody 26 hours later. The prosecution charged him with committing 54 crimes during the escape and he was found guilty on all counts on November 7, 2008.

Early life

What little is known about Nichols' early life is that he came from a middle class
American middle class
The American middle class is a social class in the United States. While the concept is typically ambiguous in popular opinion and common language use, contemporary social scientists have put forward several, more or less congruent, theories on the American middle class...

 family. He attended the Cardinal Gibbons School
Cardinal Gibbons School
The Cardinal Gibbons School, also referred to as Cardinal Gibbons, CG and most commonly as Gibbons, was a Roman Catholic high school and middle school for boys in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A...

 in Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...

. After high school, he attended college at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
Kutztown University of Pennsylvania , is an American public university located in rural Kutztown, Berks County, Pennsylvania and is one of fourteen schools that comprise the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education and is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary...

 in Kutztown, Pennsylvania
Kutztown, Pennsylvania
Kutztown is a borough in Berks County, Pennsylvania, southwest of Allentown and northeast of Reading. As of the 2000 census, the borough has a total population of 5,067. It is the site of Kutztown University.- History :...

, for three semesters from 1989 to 1990. While attending the college he played linebacker on their football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 team. Nick Pergine, who played football with Nichols at Kutztown, said Nichols' massive physical presence and martial-arts skills earned him a reputation as someone to be careful around. Jake Williams, who coached Nichols at Kutztown, compared Nichols' physique (6'1" and 210 lbs) with that of NFL star John Mobley
John Mobley
John Ulysses Mobley is a former American Football linebacker who played eight seasons for the Denver Broncos from 1996 through 2003 in the National Football League....

, who also played at the university.

Berks County
Berks County, Pennsylvania
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 373,638 people, 141,570 households, and 98,532 families residing in the county. The population density was 435 people per square mile . There were 150,222 housing units at an average density of 175 per square mile...

 records show that Nichols had been arrested at least three times during his short stay at the university. In 1990, he was charged with terroristic threats, simple assault, disorderly conduct and harassment, stemming from an incident in a university dining hall, according to court documents. He pleaded guilty to the two lesser charges and the others were dropped.

The next year, Nichols was arrested twice in a month for criminal trespassing, misdemeanor criminal mischief and disorderly conduct. Those charges were later dropped. After his brief stay at Kutztown, Nichols went to Newberry College
Newberry College
Newberry College is a liberal-arts college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America located on a historic campus in Newberry, South Carolina.The college has 1,025 students and a 19:1 student-teacher ratio...

 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
Dormitory
A dormitory, often shortened to dorm, in the United States is a residence hall consisting of sleeping quarters or entire buildings primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people, often boarding school, college or university students...

.

After dropping out of school, Nichols moved to Georgia in 1995. He worked for Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...

 for eight years, as a Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...

 systems engineer
Systems engineering
Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering that focuses on how complex engineering projects should be designed and managed over the life cycle of the project. Issues such as logistics, the coordination of different teams, and automatic control of machinery become more...

. Nichols last employment was working as a computer engineer
Computer engineering
Computer engineering, also called computer systems engineering, is a discipline that integrates several fields of electrical engineering and computer science required to develop computer systems. Computer engineers usually have training in electronic engineering, software design, and...

 for a logistics subsidiary of Atlanta-based shipping giant UPS
United Parcel Service
United Parcel Service, Inc. , typically referred to by the acronym UPS, is a package delivery company. Headquartered in Sandy Springs, Georgia, United States, UPS delivers more than 15 million packages a day to 6.1 million customers in more than 220 countries and territories around the...

. Company spokesman Norm Black says Nichols joined the unit in March 2004 and left in September 2004, which was when he was arrested in the rape case. 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. After discovering that she was dating Chris Rowell, a minister from their church, Nichols forced his way into her home, bound her with duct tape
Duct tape
Duct tape, or duck tape, is cloth- or scrim-backed pressure sensitive tape often sealed with polyethylene. It is very similar to gaffer tape but differs in that gaffer tape was designed to be cleanly removed, while duct tape was not. It has a standard width of and is generally silver or black...

 at gun point and raped her. He was charged with rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...

, aggravated assault with intent to rape, aggravated sodomy, burglary
Burglary
Burglary is a crime, the essence of which is illicit entry into a building for the purposes of committing an offense. Usually that offense will be theft, but most jurisdictions specify others which fall within the ambit of burglary...

, false imprisonment
False imprisonment
False imprisonment is a restraint of a person in a bounded area without justification or consent. False imprisonment is a common-law felony and a tort. It applies to private as well as governmental detention...

 and possession of a firearm during commission of a crime. The first case had ended in a mistrial with a hung jury
Hung jury
A hung jury or deadlocked jury is a jury that cannot, by the required voting threshold, agree upon a verdict after an extended period of deliberation and is unable to change its votes due to severe differences of opinion.- England and Wales :...

. Nichols had told people in the courthouse "I'm not going to go lying down" when he learned that he would be retried. Nichols’ friends warned the DA’s office he might try to escape and one friend told prosecutors that Nichols planned to escape and asked him to leave a credit card in the pocket of the suit jacket he would wear to court. Nichols mother also emailed the Fulton County Sheriff's Office to tell them she believed her son may try to take an officer's weapon. The retrial began the next week and the tension heightened even further two 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
Shiv (weapon)
A shiv is a slang term for any sharp or pointed implement used as a knife-like weapon. However, the word in practical usage is frequently used when referring to an improvised bladed weapon. Shivs are commonly made by inmates in prisons across the world...

," common jailhouse weapons fashioned out of metal which possibly came from a door hinge. Nichols also taunted assistant district attorneys
District attorney
In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...

 Gayle Abramson and Ash Joshi during the retrial by saying "you're doing a much 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 Nichol's scheduled testimony that Friday since the prosecution in the rape case had planned to call its last witness that day and jury deliberations were upon him. Nichols would have faced life in prison if convicted.

The shootings and escape

The State of Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

 detailed the following events which took place on March 11, 2005: Cynthia Hall, a 5'2", 51-year-old sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....

's deputy was routinely assigned to guard the 6' Nichols during his two trials under Judge Barnes. After Nichols arrived at the courthouse on a bus, Hall escorted him from a basement detention area to a holding cell on the 8th floor of the Fulton County Justice Tower. Deputy Dilcie Thomas said that on the morning of the attack, she urged Hall three times to get another deputy to go with her upstairs to a holding cell with Nichols, where he was going to change from jail garb before appearing in court. Hall told Thomas, “No, I got him.” She seemed to trust him and did not require that he wear the customary leg shackles, even though, the day before his attack, he had been caught with shanks in his shoes. She escorted Nichols to the holding area where she was to remove his handcuffs
Handcuffs
Handcuffs are restraint devices designed to secure an individual's wrists close together. They comprise two parts, linked together by a chain, a hinge, or rigid bar. Each half has a rotating arm which engages with a ratchet that prevents it from being opened once closed around a person's wrist...

 so that he could change into civilian clothes. Hall released one cuff and turned Nichols around to unhook the remaining cuff, which was dangling from his wrist. Nichols brutally attacked the deputy, pushing her into another open cell. The video surveillance camera recorded as he overpowered the deputy hitting her so hard in the face her feet left the ground. He emerged from the cell with her gun belt which included her radio and weapon magazines. Nichols retrieved her keys from the floor and locked Deputy Hall in the cell. Nichols entered another cell and changed into his street clothes and was seen about 4½ minutes later leaving the holding cell area. He used the keys to open a lock box where he armed himself with her Beretta
Beretta
Fabbrica d'Armi Pietro Beretta is an Italian firearms manufacturer. Their firearms are used worldwide for a variety of civilian, law enforcement, and military purposes. It is also known for manufacturing shooting clothes and accessories. Beretta is the oldest active firearms manufacturer in the...

 .40 cal.
.40 S&W
The .40 S&W is a rimless pistol cartridge developed jointly by major American firearms manufacturers Winchester and Smith & Wesson. The .40 S&W was developed from the ground up as a law enforcement cartridge designed to duplicate performance of the FBI's reduced velocity 10mm cartridge which could...

 semi-automatic pistol. According to hospital sources, the deputy sustained significant brain injury, facial fractures and a large laceration to her forehead. After the attack, her condition was reported as critical
Medical state
Medical states or medical conditions are used to describe a patient's condition in a hospital. These terms are most commonly used by the news media and are rarely used by doctors, who in their daily business prefer to deal with medical problems in greater detail.Either or both of two aspects of...

, but she survived. Deputy Hall's injuries were so severe that doctors at Grady Memorial Hospital
Grady Memorial Hospital
Grady Memorial Hospital, frequently referred to as Grady Hospital or simply Grady, is the largest hospital in the state of Georgia and the public hospital for the city of Atlanta. It is the 5th largest public hospital in the United States, as well as one the busiest Level I trauma centers in the...

 initially believed that she had sustained a gunshot wound to the face.

Nichols then crossed over to the old courthouse
Fulton County Courthouse (Georgia)
The Fulton County Courthouse, built between 1911 and 1914, is an historic courthouse building located at 160 Pryor Street SW in Atlanta, Georgia, the Fulton county seat. It was designed by noted Atlanta-based architect A. Ten Eyck Brown , along with the Atlanta firm of Morgan and Dillon. It is...

 via a skybridge
Skyway
In an urban setting, a skyway, catwalk, sky bridge, or skywalk is a type of pedway consisting of an enclosed or covered bridge between two buildings. This protects pedestrians from the weather. These skyways are usually owned by businesses, and are therefore not public spaces...

, where he entered the private chambers of Judge Rowland Barnes
Rowland Barnes
Rowland W. Barnes was a Fulton County, Georgia, United States, Superior Court Judge. He was shot to death in his courtroom....

. He encountered case managers Susan Christy and Gina Clarke Thomas along with attorney David Allman. Nichols made them all sit on the floor and held them at gunpoint while inquiring as to where Judge Barnes was. Sgt. Grantley White, the court bailiff, entered the chambers and was also met by an armed Nichols. Sgt. White tried to disarm Nichols but failed. Nichols continued to point the gun at him and stated "Don’t do nothing Sarge. I’ve got nothing to lose". He was held at gunpoint and Nichols also disarmed him. Nichols forced Sgt. White to handcuff Christy, Thomas and Allman but not before Sgt. White was able to push an emergency button in the chambers. When Nichols heard court security trying to contact Sgt. White he responded to dispatch on the radio trying to dispel the alarm. That alerted other Deputies because they heard someone using Sgt. White's radio number but they did not recognize the voice. Nichols handcuffed Sgt. White and forced him into a bathroom and exited the chambers.

Nichols entered courtroom 8-F from a door behind the judge's bench. He found Judge Barnes in the courtroom presiding over motions in a civil trial
Lawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...

. He shot him at close range in the back of the head. Witnesses said the judge never knew Nichols was behind him. Nichols scanned the prosecution table apparently in search of the Assistant District Attorneys that were prosecuting and when he saw they were not in the court room he lowered the gun and shot Julie Brandau, the court reporter
Court reporter
A court reporter, stenotype reporter, voice writing reporter, or transcriber is a person whose occupation is to transcribe spoken or recorded speech into written form, using machine shorthand or voice writing equipment to produce official transcripts of court hearings, depositions and other...

, in the head. Sgt. White was able to get out of the restroom and access his radio where he put in the first radio transmission letting responding officers know there had been "shots fired" and he also gave a description of the armed Nichols. Nichols then walked down from the bench and checked a side room where witnesses were held before trial began, apparently seeking his rape victim, but she was late that day and the room was empty.

Nichols exited the courtroom and ran into an emergency stairwell where he was seen by Sgt. Hoyt Teasley. Sgt Teasley had just arrived at work and was responding to the alarm before he picked up a radio or even put on his bulletproof vest. Teasley pursued Nichols and the two ran down seven flights of stairs and out of the old courthouse via an emergency exit onto Martin Luther King Drive. When Nichols exited the building he sounded a door alarm. He fired several gun shots in the air creating a chaotic situation on the crowded street. He started across Martin Luther King when the door alarm sounded again as Teasley exited the building. Nichols pointed one of the guns at Teasley and fired 2 shots before the Deputy could even draw his own gun. Teasley fell to the ground and Nichols fled. Teasley was presumably unaware of Nichols being armed or of the incident in the courtroom because he did not have a radio. Barnes and Brandau died at the scene and Teasley was pronounced dead on arrival
Dead on arrival
Dead on arrival or D.O.A. is a term used to indicate that a patient was found to be already clinically dead upon the arrival of professional medical assistance, often in the form of first responders such as emergency medical technicians, paramedics, or police...

 due to bleeding from a single gunshot wound to his abdomen at Grady Memorial Hospital.

Nichols ran across the street into the underground parking garage across from the courthouse. During his escape Nichols carjacked
Carjacking
Carjacking is a form of hijacking, where the crime is of stealing a motor vehicle and so also armed assault when the vehicle is occupied. Historically, such as in the rash of semi-trailer truck hijackings during the 1960s, the general term hijacking was used for that type of vehicle abduction,...

 at least five vehicles. He first took a 2002 Mazda Tribute
Mazda Tribute
The Mazda Tribute is a compact SUV made by Japanese automaker Mazda since 2001. It is jointly developed with Ford Motor Company and based on the front-wheel drive Mazda 626 platform, which is in turn the basis for the similar Ford Escape on the CD2 platform...

 from Deputy Solicitor General Duane Cooper, who was entering the parking garage. Nichols reportedly walked up to Cooper, pointed a gun at him, and said "Give it up, mother….” Cooper exited the car and Nichols got in, backed out, and sped away in the vehicle down Martin Luther King Blvd
Streets named after Martin Luther King, Jr.
Streets named after Martin Luther King, Jr. can be found in many cities of the United States and in nearly every major metropolis in America. There are also a number of other countries that have honored King, including no fewer than ten cities in Italy...

. Larry McCrary, who works in the Fulton County juvenile court, saw Nichols fleeing and followed him as he turned on Peachtree Street
Peachtree Street
Peachtree Street is the main street of Atlanta. The city grew up around the street, and many of its historical and municipal buildings are or were located along it...

 and then into a parking garage near Underground Atlanta
Underground Atlanta
Underground Atlanta is a shopping and entertainment district in the Five Points neighborhood of downtown Atlanta, Georgia, United States, near the intersection of the east and west MARTA rail lines. First opened in 1969, it takes advantage of the viaducts built over the city's many railroad tracks...

. McCrary said he parked his vehicle to block the entrance and exit to the parking deck and was able to flag down three Atlanta Police officers. He said that after the officers went inside the parking deck, he saw Nichols calmly walk out at an entrance down the street and approach a tow truck that was at the corner of Peachtree and Wall streets. Nichols pointed a gun at the driver, Deronta Franklin, and ordered him out. Nichols sped off in the tow truck and travelled north briefly on Peachtree Street, then turned left onto Walton, a one-way street
One-way traffic
One-way traffic is traffic that moves in a single direction. A one-way street is a street either facilitating only one-way traffic, or designed to direct vehicles to move in one direction.-General signs:...

, heading the wrong way and entered the Imperial parking garage on Cone Street.

On the fourth floor of the garage, Nichols hijacked a 2004 Mercury Sable
Mercury Sable
The Sable was a very important sedan for both Mercury and the American auto industry.Ford had lagged in introducing mid-size front wheel drive cars to compete against General Motors' Chevrolet Citation and its best-selling Chevrolet Celebrity/Pontiac 6000/Oldsmobile Cutlass/Buick Century quartet as...

 owned by Almeta Kilgo, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the only major daily newspaper in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, and its suburbs. The AJC, as it is called, is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the result of the merger between The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta...

 software developer. Pointing the gun at her, he demanded she move to the passenger seat. Kilgo froze and he said "I’m not playing with you. Can’t you see the blood on my hands?" He drove a short distance and then stopped and told her to get in the trunk. She was able to escape. Nichols left in the car and headed north on Spring Street. He drove inside the parking lot at the Apparel Mart and confronted Sung Chung in his 1997 Isuzu Trooper
Isuzu Trooper
The Isuzu Trooper was a mid-size SUV produced by the Japanese automaker Isuzu between 1981 and 2005. It was exported worldwide as the Isuzu Bighorn, Isuzu Trooper, Isuzu Trooper II , Caribe 442, Acura SLX, Chevrolet Trooper, Subaru Bighorn, Honda Horizon, Opel/Vauxhall Monterey, Holden Jackaroo,...

. Chung, who works at a jewelry store there, said Nichols put a gun to his head and first ordered him to get in the passenger seat, and then to the floor board. Chung said that as Nichols was pulling out of the garage, he ordered him to give him his jacket so he could change his appearance. It was while Nichols was changing into the jacket that Chung saw an opportunity, unlocked the passenger door, and jumped out before the car exited the lot. Nichols drove to the Centennial Tower
Centennial Tower (Atlanta)
Centennial Tower, formerly 101 Marietta, is a , 36-storey skyscraper in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. The building was completed in 1975 and was subsequently renovated in 1998, resulting in a name change, new facade, and chevrons added to the building which increased its original by .The U.S...

 parking deck across from CNN Center
CNN Center
The CNN Center is the world headquarters of the Cable News Network . The main newsrooms and studios for several of CNN's news channels are located in the building...

, at 9:20 a.m. and only 15 minutes after the first carjacking, AJC
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the only major daily newspaper in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, and its suburbs. The AJC, as it is called, is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the result of the merger between The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta...

 reporter Don O’Briant became the final carjack victim. As O’Briant parked his car in a handicapped space, Nichols, who wasn't wearing a shirt, got out of Chung's car and asked for directions to Lenox Square
Lenox Square
Lenox Square is an upscale enclosed super regional shopping mall located in the Buckhead District of Atlanta, Georgia. Lenox Square comprises more than of retail space, with 250 stores on four levels, including a large food court. The mall is home to three anchor stores: Macy's, Bloomingdale's,...

. Then he pulled a gun and said "Give me the keys or I'll kill you". He ordered O'Briant out of his car and told him to get into the trunk. O'Briant refused and Nichols hit him with the gun and took O'Briant's 1987 Honda Accord
Honda Accord
The Honda Accord is a series of compact, mid-size and full-size automobiles manufactured by Honda since 1976, and sold in a majority of automotive markets throughout the world....

. O'Briant sustained a broken wrist and received 15 stitches above his eye.

Later that day the Honda was located on the first level of the same parking deck from which it was reported stolen. Investigators suspected Nichols may have abandoned the car after spotting an easier target, taking the owner with him to avoid being reported. Police tried to determine if there were any missing persons or stolen vehicles reported from the area, but their efforts were hampered by the fact that the NCAA
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...

 Southeastern Conference
Southeastern Conference
The Southeastern Conference is an American college athletic conference that operates in the southeastern part of the United States. It is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama...

 basketball tournament was taking place a few blocks away at the Georgia Dome
Georgia Dome
The Georgia Dome is a domed stadium located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, between downtown to the east and Vine City to the west. It is primarily the home stadium for the NFL Atlanta Falcons and the NCAA Division I FCS Georgia State Panthers football team. It is owned and operated by the...

, and thousands of out-of-town visitors were in the area at the time. Police then recovered security camera images taken Friday morning inside a stairwell in the parking deck which showed a shirtless Nichols putting on a jacket taken from O'Briant's car as he went to a lower level and disappeared.http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/03/12/national/12cnd-shoot650.jpg Security camera images did not yield clues as to how Nichols left the parking garage.

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

Fulton County
Fulton County, Georgia
Fulton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. Its county seat is Atlanta, the state capital since 1868 and the principal county of the Atlanta metropolitan area...

 District attorney
District attorney
In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...

 Paul Howard's office later announced that a 911 call had been received from a man claiming to be Nichols as the late-afternoon news conference was being televised. Nichols threatened to kill assistant district attorneys Gayle Abramson and Ash Joshi, who were prosecuting his rape case.

Manhunt

Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

 Governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...

 Sonny Perdue
Sonny Perdue
George Ervin "Sonny" Perdue III, was the 81st Governor of Georgia. Upon his inauguration in January 2003, he became the first Republican governor of Georgia since Benjamin F. Conley served during Reconstruction in the 1870s....

 announced that there was a reward of approximately $65,000 for information leading to Nichols' arrest. The city of Atlanta was in a virtual lock down following the shootings. Hundreds of officers in cruisers and helicopters swarmed the area in the search of the suspect setting up roadblocks at major intersections in downtown and midtown. More than 100 state troopers and officers from several agencies, including the FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...

, were assisting in the search, but there were few leads, said G.D. Stiles, a Fulton County deputy chief. Police officers helped out even while off-duty. Law enforcement also cast a net outside the city, and patrol cars were being positioned on median strips along I-75 and I-85. Public schools in the area were secured, and people inside the courthouse were not allowed to leave until around 11:30 a.m. Friday after authorities locked everyone inside and performed a thorough check of the building.

Atlanta police Chief Richard Pennington announced it was believed that Nichols took a MARTA
Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority
The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority or MARTA is the principal rapid-transit system in the Atlanta metropolitan area and the ninth-largest in the United States. Formed in 1971 as strictly a bus system, MARTA operates a network of bus routes linked to a rapid transit system consisting...

 train north. It was later learned that Nichols traveled on foot from Centennial Parking garage to the Five Points MARTA station
Five Points (MARTA station)
Five Points is a tri-level underground multi-platform metro station of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority rail system. It is the transfer point between the Red and Gold Lines and the Blue and Green Lines and serves as MARTA's transportation hub. It provides access to the Five Points...

, which is less than a block from the parking deck. Police later located a witness, Michal Taylor, who said she was on the train with Nichols that morning. She was the only person on a MARTA train when Nichols boarded at the Five Points station shortly after the shootings. Taylor said Nichols was wearing a jacket that didn't fit, no shirt and he was sweating profusely. Taylor did not recognize Nichols because she had not seen any of the news coverage that morning. Surveillance video was later recovered showing Nichols walking through the station at 9:57 a.m.

There was an incident at approximately 10:18 p.m. where Nichols attacked two people at the Summit at Lenox (now the Heights at Lenox) apartments at 3200 Lenox Road. The apartments were near the Lenox MARTA station
Lenox (MARTA station)
Lenox is an underground metro station on the Gold Line of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority. It provides access to Lenox Mall, Phipps Plaza,and Buckhead Business District...

 in northern Atlanta's popular Buckhead
Buckhead (Atlanta)
Buckhead is the uptown district of Atlanta, Georgia, United States, comprising approximately the northern one-fifth of the city. Buckhead is a major commercial and financial center of the Southeast, and it is the third-largest business district in Atlanta, behind Downtown and Midtown...

 neighborhood. Nichols tried to kidnap Iman Adan as she was walking towards her apartment after leaving the gym. He pulled a gun on her and told her he needed to use her apartment as a hiding place. But after taking her to the apartment, he was surprised by the woman’s boyfriend, Shelton Warren, who was already inside the apartment. Warren pushed Adan inside and started to wrestle with Nichols in the hallway. The two continued to fight and Warren could hear a hysterical Adan talking to a 911 operator. Nichols could hear Adan calling police, Warren said. “If I heard it, he heard it,” Warren said. Nichols struck Warren in the forehead with the gun
Firearm as a blunt weapon
Firearm as a blunt weapon or firearm as a blunt instrument is the practice of using a firearm as a blunt weapon, rather than the conventional role of shooting with it...

 he was holding and then fled.

The morning of Saturday, March 12, carpenters arriving for work found ICE
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Homeland Security , responsible for identifying, investigating, and dismantling vulnerabilities regarding the nation's border, economic, transportation, and infrastructure security...

 Agent David G. Wilhelm dead in his unfinished house. It was reported that Wilhelm had been shot and killed late Friday night at his new home at 962 Canter Road in the Buckhead
Buckhead (Atlanta)
Buckhead is the uptown district of Atlanta, Georgia, United States, comprising approximately the northern one-fifth of the city. Buckhead is a major commercial and financial center of the Southeast, and it is the third-largest business district in Atlanta, behind Downtown and Midtown...

 section of Atlanta. Canter Road is located across the street from the Summit at Lenox apartments. At the time of his slaying, Wilhelm had been working alone laying tiles in the bathroom of the home, which was under construction, said Kenneth Smith, special agent in charge of the ICE office. Agent Wilhelm's body was found in a back bedroom and he had been shot one time in the abdomen. It was apparent he had been robbed because the pockets in his pants were turned inside out and some loose change was scattered on the floor. One spent shell casing was found next to the body. Agent Wilhelm's wallet with his badge, his gun, and his blue Chevrolet
Chevrolet
Chevrolet , also known as Chevy , is a brand of vehicle produced by General Motors Company . Founded by Louis Chevrolet and ousted GM founder William C. Durant on November 3, 1911, General Motors acquired Chevrolet in 1918...

 pickup truck
Pickup truck
A pickup truck is a light motor vehicle with an open-top rear cargo area .-Definition:...

 were stolen.

Capture

At 9:50 a.m. Gwinnett County
Gwinnett County, Georgia
, Gwinnett County had a population of 805,321. The racial and ethnic composition of the population was 53.3% white , 23.6% black , 2.7% Korean, 2.6% Asian Indian, 2.0% Vietnamese, 3.3% other Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 8.8% some other race and 3.1% from two or more races...

 9-1-1
9-1-1
9-1-1 is the emergency telephone number for the North American Numbering Plan .It is one of eight N11 codes.The use of this number is for emergency circumstances only, and to use it for any other purpose can be a crime.-History:In the earliest days of telephone technology, prior to the...

 received a call saying Nichols was at the Bridgewater Apartments in Duluth, Georgia
Duluth, Georgia
Duluth is a city in Gwinnett County, Georgia and an increasingly more affluent and developed suburb of Atlanta. Unincorporated portions of Forsyth County also have Duluth as a mailing address, though this area is outside city limits...

, approximately 27 miles north of Atlanta and 15 miles north of Buckhead, in Gwinnett County.Gwinnett Police, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation
Georgia Bureau of Investigation
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation or GBI is an independent, U.S. state of Georgia agency that provides assistance to the state's criminal justice system in the areas of criminal investigations, forensic laboratory services and computerized criminal justice information.-Organization:The agency is...

, the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...

, the ATF
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is a federal law enforcement organization within the United States Department of Justice...

 responded to the scene. The Gwinnett PD SWAT
SWAT
A SWAT team is an elite tactical unit in various national law enforcement departments. They are trained to perform high-risk operations that fall outside of the abilities of regular officers...

 team quickly surrounded the apartment. After some time, Nichols walked out of the apartment waving a white towel
White flag
White flags have had different meanings throughout history and depending on the locale.-Flag of temporary truce in order to parley :...

 and surrendered peacefully to the SWAT team 26 hours after the rampage began. Atlanta police chief Richard Pennington
Richard Pennington
Richard Pennington served as police chief of Atlanta, Georgia from 2002 to 2009. From 1994 to 2002 he served as police chief of New Orleans, Louisiana....

 admitted surprise that Nichols surrendered peacefully. Authorities recovered the 3 stolen firearms and Agent Wilhelm's wallet from inside the apartment. Agent Wilhelm's Chevrolet truck was found about two miles away from the apartment at a nearby industrial complex.

It was later learned that around 2:00 a.m. on March 12, Nichols approached a woman named Ashley Smith in the parking lot of the Bridgewater Apartments. He pointed a gun at her and said "If you do what I say, I won't kill you". He forced her inside her apartment and reportedly told her that he was a wanted man
Fugitive
A fugitive is a person who is fleeing from custody, whether it be from private slavery, a government arrest, government or non-government questioning, vigilante violence, or outraged private individuals...

. Nichols forced her into the bathroom and tied her up with an electrical cord and duct tape. 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, and how she was supposed to visit her that day. Thinking she may never see her daughter again, she tried to reason with him.

Smith was held hostage for several hours in her apartment, during which time Nichols requested marijuana
Cannabis (drug)
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...

, but Smith told him she only had "ice" (methamphetamine
Methamphetamine
Methamphetamine is a psychostimulant of the phenethylamine and amphetamine class of psychoactive drugs...

). 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
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

 and Rick Warren
Rick Warren
Richard Duane "Rick" Warren is an American evangelical Christian minister and author. He is the founder and senior pastor of Saddleback Church, an evangelical megachurch located in Lake Forest, California, currently the eighth-largest church in the United States...

's The Purpose Driven Life
The Purpose Driven Life
The Purpose Driven Life is a devotional book written by Christian author Rick Warren and published by Zondervan. The book has been on the New York Times Best Seller list for advice books for one of the longest periods in history, while also topping the Wall Street Journal best seller charts as...

. 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
Amphetamine psychosis
Stimulant psychosis is a psychotic disorder that appears in some people who use stimulant drugs. Most commonly, stimulant psychosis occurs in drug abusers who take very large doses but, in rare cases, it can also present in patients taking therapeutic doses under medical supervision...

. 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. Nichols said he needed to get the stolen truck away from the apartments so he told Smith to follow him in her car while he drove Agent Wilhelm's pickup truck away from the apartment complex. She asked whether she could bring her cell phone and he said she could but she never placed a call for help. She picked him up after he dropped off the truck and drove back to her home with him, she said. Her decision had a purpose: She feared that he would kill more people if she did not do what he said. She had taken it upon herself to end the manhunt. After they returned to her apartment Smith cooked breakfast for Nichols. She began to ask him if she could leave to go see her daughter and he finally agreed. When Nichols let Smith leave her apartment that morning to visit her daughter, Smith placed a call to 9-1-1
9-1-1
9-1-1 is the emergency telephone number for the North American Numbering Plan .It is one of eight N11 codes.The use of this number is for emergency circumstances only, and to use it for any other purpose can be a crime.-History:In the earliest days of telephone technology, prior to the...

 at 9:50 a.m.

Police initially thought that Smith may have had a prior relationship with Nichols but later learned 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.

On March 25, 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
Fraternal Order of Police
The Fraternal Order of Police is an organization of sworn law enforcement officers in the United States. It claims a membership of over 325,000 members organized in 2100 local chapters , organized into local lodges, state lodges, and the national Grand Lodge...

 and $5,000 from the city of Atlanta. She previously received $2,500 from the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police.

The confession

After his arrest, Nichols was taken to a FBI field office in Decatur, Georgia
Decatur, Georgia
Decatur is a city in, and county seat of, DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. With a population of 19,335 in the 2010 census, the city is sometimes assumed to be larger since multiple zip codes in unincorporated DeKalb County bear the Decatur name...

 where he was initially held on a federal charge of possession of a firearm by a person under indictment. Nichols was then transferred to the Atlanta Police station where he was interviewed by Atlanta Police Detective Vincent Velazquez. Nichols confessed on video and detailed his crimes over the three-and-a-half-hour statement he made to police without any lawyer present. Nichols was in custody for about two hours when he signed a waiver and agreed to make a videotaped statement about the courthouse shootings. Nichols told police he felt like a "soldier on a mission" exacting revenge on a judicial system he feels is unfair to African-Americans. He feared he was about to go to prison for a rape he claims he did not commit, and grew weary of awaiting trial in jail and looking at a sea of black faces. He describes how he flung the much smaller female deputy into the concrete wall like a rag doll. After taking her weapon instead of escaping down nearby stairs, he ran across a sky bridge 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 that he shot the sheriff's sergeant outside the courthouse so he could escape and that he later shot the federal agent in Buckhead while attempting to steal his car. He also admitted holding 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. “He was very up front and very detailed and meticulous in telling me what happened,” Velazquez said. “It was one of the easiest interviews I’ve ever done.”

Fulton County
Fulton County, Georgia
Fulton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. Its county seat is Atlanta, the state capital since 1868 and the principal county of the Atlanta metropolitan area...

 District Attorney
District attorney
In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...

 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
Remorse
Remorse is an emotional expression of personal regret felt by a person after he or she has committed an act which they deem to be shameful, hurtful, or violent. Remorse is closely allied to guilt and self-directed resentment...

."

Indictment

On May 5, 2005, he was indicted by a Fulton County grand jury on 54 counts including murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...

, felony murder
Felony murder
The rule of felony murder is a legal doctrine in some common law jurisdictions that broadens the crime of murder in two ways. First, when an offender kills accidentally or without specific intent to kill in the course of an applicable felony, what might have been manslaughter is escalated to murder...

, kidnapping
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...

, armed robbery
Robbery
Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take something of value by force or threat of force or by putting the victim in fear. At common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear....

, aggravated assault, aggravated battery
Aggravated battery
Aggravated battery in criminal law is a more serious form of battery, and is considered a felony. Aggravated battery can be punished by a fine or more than a year in prison in some countries...

, theft
Theft
In common usage, theft is the illegal taking of another person's property without that person's permission or consent. The word is also used as an informal shorthand term for some crimes against property, such as burglary, embezzlement, larceny, looting, robbery, shoplifting and fraud...

, carjacking
Carjacking
Carjacking is a form of hijacking, where the crime is of stealing a motor vehicle and so also armed assault when the vehicle is occupied. Historically, such as in the rash of semi-trailer truck hijackings during the 1960s, the general term hijacking was used for that type of vehicle abduction,...

, and escape from authorities.

Nichols subsequently pleaded 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
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...

. Nichols became Georgia's most expensive defendant, with his case topping $3 million for the prosecution and defense combined. The judge and Standards Council assigned Nichols four attorneys. In addition to the costs for Nichols' defense, the shootings have also depleted the budget for Fulton County, which is responsible for at least $10 million in settlement fees to victims' families.

Barnes' widow won a $5.2 million lawsuit and county commissioners agreed to pay $5 million to Brandau's daughter, Christina Scholte, who also sued.

Nichols' family reaction

Nichols' parents were not available for immediate reaction, as they were traveling abroad in Africa, where Nichols' mother, a former agent for the Internal Revenue Service
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...

 is helping set up a tax system. She became aware of her son's case via a CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

 broadcast while in Tanzania
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...

. She remains in contact with Nichols' criminal attorney Barry Hazen via E-mail
E-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...

.

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' parents and Claudia Barnes, Judge Barnes widow, have attempted to find comfort among themselves. Gene Nichols described his son as being "mentally ill" on the day of his spree, and "is praying at least one juror decides to spare his son's life".

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.

There was intense controversy about the security practices and staffing at the courthouse which unfolded over the next few months.

March 24, 2005: Fulton County judges order their own security review of courthouse security.

March 27, 2005: A security audit of the Fulton County Courthouse begins.

March 31, 2005: The union representing Fulton County deputies recommend courthouse safety upgrades, including improving training and equipment.

April 22, 2005: A 25-member task force begins looking into courthouse security.

May 9, 2005: The task force announces key recommendations to improve courthouse security, including installing cameras in all courtrooms, using two deputies to escort high-risk inmates, using proper restraints on inmates, and the use of special doors in courthouse holding cells that allow deputies to handcuff inmates before they enter the cell.

July 8, 2005: The Fulton County Courthouse Security Commission releases its report outlining security mistakes made on March 11, 2005. The report found that the courthouse was understaffed by security personnel. While about 235 deputies were assigned to courthouse, the report said there should be over 300. The report recommended that civilian bailiffs be used for administrative duties so deputies can focus on security. It also recommended that panic buttons be installed under courtroom desks and that an emergency plan be in place in case of a security breach at the courthouse.

August 8, 2005: Eight Fulton County deputies are fired due to their actions during the courthouse shootings.

October 5, 2005: The Fulton County Sheriff's Department internal review of the courthouse shootings is released.

An episode of American Justice
American Justice
American Justice is an American criminal justice television program on the A&E Network, hosted by Bill Kurtis. The show features interesting or notable cases, such as the Selena Murder of a Star, Scarsdale Diet doctor murder, the Hillside Stranglers, Matthew Shepard, or the Wells Fargo heist, with...

 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

Superior Court Judge Hilton Fuller, who took the case after local judges recused themselves due to their friendship with the murdered judge, disqualified himself in January 2008. 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
Jeffrey Toobin
Jeffrey Ross Toobin is an American lawyer, author, and legal analyst for CNN and The New Yorker.-Early life and education:...

, who incorporated remarks made during the interview into an article subsequently published in the January 30 issue of The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...

. 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.

While awaiting trial it was discovered that Nichols was suspected of plotting a second escape attempt. District Attorney Paul Howard's office confirmed that the Attorney General was asked to appoint an outside prosecutor to investigate Nichols' security at the Fulton County jail. The independent investigation so far has discovered that Nichols allegedly got direct and indirect help while in custody in Fulton County, not only from his girlfriend, but also from two deputies who were reportedly paid cash for favors, a paralegal
Paralegal
Paralegal is used in most jurisdictions to describe a paraprofessional who assists qualified lawyers in their legal work. This is true in the United States and many other countries. However, in Ontario, Canada, paralegals are licensed by the Law Society of Upper Canada, giving paralegals an...

 who worked for Nichols' lawyers, and Nichols' brother.

Reports said Nichols asked his long-distance girlfriend Lisa Meneguzzo to go to a Home Depot store and make a purchase of construction tools including a masonry saw, a circular saw, and a jack. Nichols is said to have plotted an escape by sawing his way out of a cement block and exiting. The reported plot did not get past the planning stages and Nichols was moved to DeKalb County jail in October 2006.

The Prosecution

On September 22, 2008, roughly 3½ years after the crimes, Nichols' trial began in courtroom 6B of the Atlanta Municipal Court in front of Bodiford. At 11:12 a.m, Nichols officially entered his plea: not guilty by reason of insanity. Nichols’ defense team moved again to delay the trial but Bodiford refused.

“It is no surprise to the lawyers and to any observers that I am denying the continuance,” Bodiford said. “There has got to be a deadline… and we have reached our deadline.” Nichols' counsel, a nationally known death-penalty litigator from Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the seat of Mecklenburg County. In 2010, Charlotte's population according to the US Census Bureau was 731,424, making it the 17th largest city in the United States based on population. The Charlotte metropolitan area had a 2009...

, attorney Henderson Hill, acknowledged in his opening statement to the jury that the "terrible, almost unspeakable things that happened on March 11" were "at Mr. Nichols' hands." He acknowledged that Nichols also was guilty of the rape and aggravated assault of his longtime girlfriend — the crime for which Nichols was being tried in front of Barnes. He argued instead that Nichols was not guilty by reason of insanity, in that he believed he was in a war in which he was a slave rebelling against the United States and plantation
Plantation
A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...

 politics. Hill said that Nichols' mental illness manifesting itself in an addiction to video games in which he came to believe he was a real superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...

.

A jury of six black women, three white women, two black men, and one Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

n man heard the case. They were selected after a nine-week process in which more than 240 prospective jurors were questioned. Ultimately the cost to the state of Nichols' publicly funded defense came to at least $1.8 million.

The prosecution opening was marked by the playing of an audiotape of the gunshots that killed Fulton County Superior Court Judge Rowland W. Barnes and court reporter Julie Anne Brandau, whose tape recorder, left running, preserved her last moments of life. Played by lead prosecutor Kellie Hill, the tape at first began with what Hill called a moment of “regular courtroom tranquility” of a lawyer’s argument to the court—until the first gunshot rang out. Then, the apparent confusion of stunned civil lawyers and a second shot, four seconds later. A woman's voice was heard saying "Don't hurt me, please don't hurt me, help please don't hurt me." The screams of Barnes’s staff attorney were recorded as Brandau fell across her, fatally shot through the head.

Hill said Barnes had been shot in the head from behind. As the lawyers in the rape case fled the courtroom, they had to step over Barnes’ body. During opening statements Hill called him a "conniving, vicious, cold-blooded, remorseless, evil and extremely dangerous killer" who carefully planned the attack and methodically sought out his targets. "He's not insane," Hill said. "He had a plan. And we're going to bring you proof of the plan."

Early in the trial the prosecution sought to cut away at the defense plea that Nichols was not guilty by reason of insanity. On the stand Gayle Abramson, the former Fulton County prosecutor who tried Nichols twice in 2005 on charges he rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...

d his former girlfriend said she never saw any signs of mental illness
Mental illness
A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an individual, and which is not a part of normal development or culture. Such a disorder may consist of a combination of affective, behavioural,...

 in Nichols when she met with him and his attorney during the rape trial. She said Nichols’ attorney never mentioned his client’s alleged mental illnesses, either. Asked what Nichols’ demeanor was like during the rape trial, she replied: “Confident. I hate to use a cliché, but cool, calm and collected.” Far from seeming delusional, she said, he seemed constantly alert. In the afternoon, Defense Attorney Henderson Hill probed her again and again until she finally lost her cool during a testy exchange. “I’m an attorney, and I know what your defense is,” she said. “And it is B.S.”

The prosecution stated a primary witness, Cynthia Hall, will not be able to testify at trial. She has no memory of the last day she was with Brian Nichols. The beating she took on March 11, 2005, left her an invalid. The former Fulton County sheriff’s deputy is now blind in her right eye and her eyelid droops. Her brain damage is causing confusion, memory problems, difficulty with speech and she has difficulty walking unassisted according to Dr. Gerald Bilsky, the assistant director for the brain injury unit at the Shepherd Center. Witnesses testified during the trial that she was his guard and had become friendly with him. She seemed to trust him and chatted with the inmate in the manner of friends. “They seemed to be quite familiar with each other,” former Fulton County sheriff’s deputy Sharon Pauls said on the stand. “They talked about the case, what had happened in court, they talked about their children.” Nichols seemed to have won special concessions from Hall; for example, she did not require him to wear leg shackles as was customary.

The prosecution put forensic expert Ross Gardner on the stand to offer his findings on the crime scene at the Wilhelm home. Nichols had admitted to the shootings in a statement to police, but he claimed he fired on Wilhelm only after the off-duty federal agent pointed a gun at him. Wilhelm’s death is the only killing for which there is no witness other than Nichols. Mr. Ross found “At the moment of the gunshot to his abdomen, Mr. Wilhelm was either kneeling or standing with his upper torso leaning toward the shooter,” Gardner wrote in his report. Gardner told jurors Wilhelm was shot at a downward angle through the stomach which severed Wilhelm’s spine and paralyzed him. The bullet struck the thumb, before entering . He said that the thumb injury was not possible if Wilhelm had been gripping the pistol. Wilhelm’s Glock pistol
Glock pistol
The Glock pistol, sometimes referred to by the manufacturer as Glock "Safe Action" Pistol, is a series of semi-automatic pistols designed and produced by Glock Ges.m.b.H., located in Deutsch-Wagram, Austria. The company's founder, engineer Gaston Glock, had no experience with firearm design or...

 was also found undamaged when it was recovered. Gardner said when Wilhelm fell he was face down, but not for long. Gardner also contended that a trail in the drywall dust on the floor showed Nichols turned Wilhelm over and dragged him after shooting him. The agent’s pockets were turned inside out as if they had been rifled when he was dying on the floor of the house.

Prosecutors concluded their 54-count case against Brian Nichols on October 14, 2008 by showing autopsy
Autopsy
An autopsy—also known as a post-mortem examination, necropsy , autopsia cadaverum, or obduction—is a highly specialized surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse to determine the cause and manner of death and to evaluate any disease or injury that may be present...

 photos of his four victims. The prosecution took 17 days and 76 witnesses to present its evidence.

The Defense

Nichols defense team began their case and tried to convince jurors that Nichols was insane and should not be held accountable for his actions. They called Nichols former girlfriend to the stand as their first witness. She recounted how Nichols had impregnated another woman which caused her to end their seven-year relationship. The next day Nichols called her and said he was going kill himself because he couldn’t handle their break-up. “He told me he was going to commit suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

, and would I take care of his dog,”. He continued to beg for her to reconcile but about three weeks later she began seeing an assistant pastor at their church. She testified that Nichols was waiting for them when they got home from dinner one night. She said there was an angry confrontation but Nichols left. She said she went to bed, but at 5:00 that morning, she woke up to find Nichols in the door of her bedroom pointing a gun at her and instructing her to disarm the alarm. She testified he brought two guns, duct tape, nunchuks
Nunchaku
is a traditional Okinawan weapon consisting of two sticks connected at their ends with a short chain or rope.-Etymology:The Japanese word nunchaku is the Kun'yomi reading of the Kanji term for a traditional Chinese two section staff....

 and lighter fluid
Lighter fluid
Lighter fluid may refer to:* Butane, a highly flammable, colorless, easily liquefied gas used in cigarette lighters* Naphtha, a volatile flammable liquid hydrocarbon mixture used in wick type lighters...

. "He duct-taped my ankles and wrists together and told me if I complied, he would not harm me and would let me go — but if I didn't, it would be a murder-suicide
Murder-suicide
A murder–suicide is an act in which an individual kills one or more other persons before or at the same time as killing himself or herself. The combination of murder and suicide can take various forms, including:...

," she said. "He would kill me, and then himself. He also said he would cover me with lighter fluid — I would be burned to death." She described a terrifying seven hours in which Nichols videotaped her naked and raped her, but let her go, telling her if she went to police he would get her and her family and friends — even if he went to jail for a long time. The defense is trying to use this as a foundation to show how Nichols mentally came apart when she broke up with him.

Attorney Barry Hazen, who represented Nichols in his rape trial, was put on the stand and testified that Nichols insisted that the former girlfriend still loved him and would not testify against him, even though she brought the rape charges against him and the rape was so violent that she was injured. Hazen recounted on the stand the meeting that he and Judge Barnes had in chambers on March 10 about Nichols’ increasingly erratic behavior and how dangerous his client had become. “He was a very fine man,” Hazen said, describing the judge he had known 15 years. “He put his hand on my shoulder and said: ‘You’re sitting closest to him [Nichols] —- be careful.’ Hazen testified that Nichols had turned down a plea deal, which Judge Barnes had agreed to, that would had given him 15 years in prison instead of the 25 or more years he was likely to get if convicted —- which Hazen told Nichols he expected. Nichols believed he was such a ladies’ man he could win over the jury in the second trial the way that he had in the first. “A jury’s going to love me,” Hazen testified Nichols told him. “‘I’m a handsome man. All we need is women on the jury, and, Barry, you don’t have to worry.” Hazen testified that the behavior “gave rise to my thought: ‘There’s something wrong with this guy.’”
The defense called clinical and forensic psychologist Mark Cunningham to the stand to testify about Nichols mental condition. Cunningham said Nichols had an emotionally distant relationship with his parents because when he was a child they worked long hours and were seldom home. His father routinely drank alcohol and also smoked marijuana, which led Nichols to begin abusing the same substances as a child. Cunningham said Nichols was sexually abused by a cousin and his older brother and that he was bullied as a child. “The stresses of his childhood is what carries forward into adulthood,” Cunningham said. He said Nichols began to show extreme beliefs in college and he presented a college essays that Nichols wrote in 1992. In them, Nichols lays out his belief that there is an organized and deliberate attempt by whites to eradicate
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...

 the black race, by imprisoning black men, and keeping them from having children. One of Nichols' essays read "If violence can be a righteous tool for the white man, then surely it can be used as a righteous tool for the black man. If violence can be used to murder defenseless women and children in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

 and Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

, then surely it can be used to defend the human rights of dark-skinned people all over the world." Nichols wrote he believes blacks should use violence to rebel arguing that if violence is right in Vietnam and the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

 “surely it can be used in South Central Los Angeles
South Los Angeles
South Los Angeles, often abbreviated as South L.A. and formerly South Central Los Angeles, is the official name for a large geographic and cultural portion lying to the southwest and southeast of downtown Los Angeles, California. The area was formerly called South Central, and is still widely known...

.” Cunningham said those beliefs “are the seeds of what later grew into a delusional disorder" as he was confined in the Fulton County jail. Nichols said the conditions paralleled slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...

: labor without pay, poor sanitation, chains; and he compared his white judge, Rowland Barnes, to a slavemaster. He said Nichols eventually became so delusional he thought he was at war with the government and that he did not know right from wrong even as he pulled the trigger. Cunningham also read an excerpt from Nichols' confession: "I felt as though I was a slave rebelling. I was a slave rebelling against the government of the United States. And as a soldier, I don't feel as though I committed any war crimes....Slaves have a tendency to rebel. And as a result, I felt as though it was my right as a human being, basically, to rebel as a slave. And I felt that it was my right to declare war on the United States government."

Conviction and Sentencing

The jurors deliberated for twelve hours over two days before finding Nichols guilty of all 54 counts, on November 7, 2008. Before the verdict was read, Bodiford sternly warned those in attendance that any emotional outburst would bring a contempt of court
Contempt of court
Contempt of court is a court order which, in the context of a court trial or hearing, declares a person or organization to have disobeyed or been disrespectful of the court's authority...

 finding, and up to 20 days in jail.

On December 13, 2008, Nichols was sentenced to multiple life sentence
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...

s with no chance of parole
Parole
Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...

, and hundreds more years on more than 50 charges. Bodiford handed down the maximum sentence on each charge, to run consecutively. Nichols was spared multiple death sentence
Death Sentence
Death Sentence is a short story by the American science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the November 1943 issue of Astounding Science Fiction and reprinted in the 1972 collection The Early Asimov.-Plot summary:...

s when the jury failed to reach a unanimous decision, as required by Georgia law, recommending that punishment. Bodiford said, "If there was any more I could give you, I would."

External links

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