Terry Nichols

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Terry Nichols
Born Terry Lynn Nichols
April 1, 1955 (1955-04-01) (age 54)
Lapeer, Michigan, U.S.
Charge(s) Manslaughter, 8 counts
Penalty Life imprisonment
Status ADX Florence supermax prison
Spouse Lana Padilla
Marife Torres

Terry Lynn Nichols (born April 1, 1955) is a U.S. Army veteran[1] who conspired with Timothy McVeigh in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on April 19, 1995. The Oklahoma City Bombing, by which the event became known, claimed the lives of 168 people[2] and drew worldwide attention.[3]

For his role, Terry Nichols was convicted of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and eight counts of involuntary manslaughter by a federal jury in Colorado.[1][4][5] He was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole[1][2] in ADX, a supermax security prison near Florence, Colorado.[6] He was returned to Oklahoma to face state charges of first degree murder in connection with the bombing. Jury selection in the McAlester, Oklahoma trial started March 1, 2004.[7] By March 11, a jury had been selected and ordered to return on March 22 to hear opening statements in the case.[8][9] He was convicted on May 26, 2004 of 161 counts of first-degree murder, which included one count of fetal homicide.[2][10] As in the federal trial, the state jury deadlocked on imposing the death penalty in the case.[1][2][11] On August 9, 2004, Terry Nichols was sentenced to 161 consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.[2][12]

Contents

[edit] Early years

Terry Nichols, born April 1, 1955,[13] was the third of four children and the youngest of three boys of Robert Nichols and Joyce E. Walton.[14][15][16] Along with brothers Leslie, James, sister Suzanne and his parents, Terry grew up on a rural farm in Decker some thirty miles northeast of Lapeer, Michigan[17] where he was born. Growing up on a farm, he learned to operate and maintain farm equipment, earning money through performance of farm related chores[13] and he is remembered by his mother Joyce to have been especially caring of injured animals and birds.[13]

Terry attended Lapeer High School[18] where he took to elective studies of crafts and business law.[16] Friends from that time remember Terry as having been shy, though he did participate in several activities. Among them were football, wrestling and skiing, the latter being in the ski club his mother sponsored.[13] James remembers his brother Terry as being book smart.[17] "He was good at artwork, drawing, things like that. Mother always encouraged him to be an artist, maybe to be a doctor," he stated in an Associated Press interview.[17] Classmates predicted he would go on to become a lawyer.[19] In 1973, Terry graduated from Lapeer High School with a 2.6 grade average.[1][16][17]

[edit] Early adulthood

Following high school, Terry Nichols left home to attend Central Michigan University[17] in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, 100 miles west of Decker. While at CMU, Terry began studies of biology, chemistry, trigonometry, literature and archery.[17][20]. He finished the 1974 spring semester with B grade average. He earned A grade in archery during summer semester, it was for one credit hour, part of physical education. In fall of 1974, Terry's older brother Leslie became badly burned in a farm accident where a fuel tank had exploded.[21] It was in that same year that Robert and Joyce Nichols divorced. In 1975, Joyce purchased the Decker farm Terry had grown up on.[20] Terry was one of the best in archery, but managed just B's and C's in his other classes.[17][20]

After tenure at CMU (earning at least 13 credit hours) he moved to Colorado. Terry's brother James reasoned in an interview that Terry may have found college too structured, pointing out that dorm life is restrictive and comparing it to being in prison.[17] Terry obtained his real estate license in Boulder in 1976[20] and following that moved to Denver. It was right after Terry had closed on his first big deal, Joyce told him she was having trouble with the farm and returned to Decker to help out.[13][20]

In 1980, he met real estate agent Lana Walsh Padilla,[22] a twice divorced mother of two boys[23] and within a year they married. On August 11, 1982,[23] Terry became a father, as Lana gave birth to their son, Joshua.

[edit] Armed Forces

In 1988, Nichols enlisted in the U.S. Army and was sent to Fort Benning in Georgia to receive his basic training. It was during his training at Fort Benning that he met Timothy McVeigh. The two were later stationed together at Fort Riley in Kansas.

[edit] After the Army

With a broken marriage, Nichols left the Army in 1989. In 1990, Nichols married a woman he had met through a mail-order bride service.[24]

[edit] Federal charges

Nichols was convicted in federal court on December 23, 1997. After first voting 10-2 for acquittal, the jury deliberated 42 hours before returning a guilty verdict on a charge of conspiring to bomb a federal building (the federal crime of using a weapon of mass destruction) and eight counts of involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of eight federal law enforcement officers. Nichols's defense relied heavily on evidence that others had conspired to bomb the building, but Nichols has never publicly implicated any other suspects based on his own knowledge of the bombing. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole on June 4, 1998.

A third accomplice and affiliate of McVeigh and Nichols, Michael Fortier, testified against the two during federal trials. Fortier entered a federal plea agreement on charges he failed to notify authorities of the crime. Fortier said he helped the pair survey the building in anticipation of the attack. He helped prosecutors piece together a theory of the crime in which Nichols and McVeigh purchased fertilizer to use in an improvised explosive device. A receipt for fertilizer was found in a drawer during a search of Nichols' Kansas[25] residence.

Most accounts say that Nichols stayed home during the Oklahoma City bombing. His neighbors reported he was spreading fertilizer on the lawn of his Herington, Kansas home the morning of the explosion. After McVeigh was arrested, Nichols drove to a local police station, where he was interviewed and eventually held in connection with the bombing. Nichols and McVeigh had been assigned together to the 1st Infantry Division, then headquartered at nearby Fort Riley, Kansas. Herington is located a few miles south of Geary State Lake, where prosecutors allege McVeigh assembled the bomb.

Prosecutors focused on a trip back from Oklahoma City a few days before the attack in which Nichols drove from Kansas to Oklahoma to retrieve McVeigh. Prosecutors said that was when McVeigh parked a yellow Mercury Marquis in an alley near the Murrah Building. McVeigh was driving the yellow Mercury when he was arrested an hour after the bombing. Nichols claimed he picked up his friend McVeigh from Oklahoma City on the promise of getting a television set.

McVeigh had been a guest of Nichols's home in the months before the bombing, and had visited Nichols and his brother James Nichols[26] at his farm in Michigan. Investigators combed the Decker, Michigan farm, and held James and his teenage son, but later released them without filing charges.

In 1995, Nichols resided in Herington with his wife Marife Torres and infant child (which was not his). (The couple have since divorced and his former wife has returned to the Philippines.) Despite his role in the bombing, after Nichols failed to cooperate fully with him, McVeigh complained that he and Fortier "were men who liked to talk tough, but in the end their bitches and kids ruled."[27]

[edit] Roger Moore robbery

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Federal prosecutors alleged McVeigh and Nichols funded the Oklahoma City bombing attack with USD $60,000 they netted during a robbery of the home of gun dealer Roger Moore.[28]

In the days before Nichols' state trial was set to begin, an Associated Press article cited FBI agents expressing outrage that they had not been shown evidence that Moore's license, or a fake license resembling his, was seized from the MidWest Bank Robbers. The gang of Aryan Republican Army affiliated robbers were reported to have visited Elohim City during the same days that McVeigh was alleged to have visited the private village in eastern Oklahoma. Terry Nichols has told investigators he did not rob Roger Moore; he contends Moore gave him the weapons, cash and precious stones.[citation needed]

Michael Moore would later interview Terry's brother James in his documentary Bowling for Columbine.[citation needed]

[edit] Oklahoma state charges

Nichols was returned to Oklahoma in January 2000 to face 161 counts of first-degree murder. On May 26, 2004 he was found guilty on all charges. It took the six-man, six-woman jury five hours to produce a verdict. The penalty phase of the trial started on June 1, 2004. After 19½ hours of deliberation over a period of three days, the jury indicated on June 11, the third anniversary of the execution of his co-defendant, Timothy McVeigh, that it was deadlocked over whether Nichols should receive the death penalty. With the death penalty no longer an option, the sentencing was in the hands of Presiding Judge Steven W. Taylor, who determined that Terry Nichols should be sentenced to 161 consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.

Charges in Oklahoma arose from a grand jury empaneled to investigate the bombing. After a federal jury refused to return a conviction on charges for which Nichols could be sentenced to die, District Attorney Bob Macy said he would pursue state charges. But Macy declined to file state charges in the matter until the grand jury indicted Nichols. The grand jury returned an indictment in March 1999.

Oklahoma County District Attorney Wes Lane has denied the prosecution was conducted solely for the purpose of having Nichols executed, saying it was important Nichols be convicted of killing all 168 victims.

"This case has always been about 161 men, women and children and an unborn baby having the same rights to their day in court as eight federal law enforcement officers," Lane said.

Citizens of Oklahoma petitioned to empanel the grand jury that investigated the bombing. State representative Charles Key led a citizens group that circulated the petitions in hopes of uncovering evidence implicating other conspirators. The grand jury, directed by Macy, heard testimony about allegations of other accomplices but returned only the indictments against Nichols.

One author was arrested and charged with jury tampering after he mailed copies of his book to members of the grand jury. The book, The Politics of Terror, outlined evidence supporting several theories of the crime, but proffered a conclusion which stated that the federal government orchestrated the bombing.

The defense had claimed that Nichols had "sincerely" converted to Christianity. Nichols made a lengthy statement laced with religious references. Darlene Welch, whose niece was killed in the explosion, said she "didn't appreciate being preached to by him" and that her "regret is that he won't stand before God sooner."[29]

[edit] Federal involvement allegations

Terry Nichols contends a high-ranking FBI director, Larry Potts, directed Timothy McVeigh in the plot to blow up a government building and might have changed the original target of the attack, according to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Utah on February 9, 2007.[30]

The suit, which seeks documents from the FBI under the federal Freedom of Information Act, alleges that authorities mistook Kenneth Trentadue[31] for a bombing conspirator and that guards killed him in an interrogation that got out of hand. Trentadue's death a few months after the April 19, 1995, bombing was ruled a suicide after several investigations. The government has adamantly denied any wrongdoing in the death. Trentadue's brother, attorney Jesse Trentadue is suing for FBI teletypes to support his belief that Federal authorities were tipped to McVeigh's plans, but failed to stop the bombing and let others walk away from prosecution. A US District court judge Dale A. Kimball ruled in September 21, 2007 that Trentadue can question and videotape David Paul Hammer and Terry Nichols.[32][33] The FBI has opposed these videotapings. The FBI claimed "there no longer existed any 'case or controversy' sufficient to confer subject matter jurisdiction" to the court after the agency's previous document disclosures. The court disagreed, noting that the FBI's responses were marked by a "troubling absence of documents to which other documents referred."[citation needed]

In his affidavit of February, 2007, Nichols says he wants to bring closure to the survivors and families of the attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which took 168 lives. He alleges he wrote then-Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2004, offering to help identify all parties who played a role in the bombing but never got a reply.

McVeigh and Nichols were the only defendants indicted in the bombing. However, Nichols alleges others were involved. McVeigh told him he was recruited for undercover missions while serving in the military, according to Nichols. He says he learned sometime in 1995 that there had been a change in the bombing target and that McVeigh was upset by that.

[edit] Incarceration

Florence ADMAX USP, where Nichols is incarcerated

Nichols, Federal Bureau of Prisons #08157-031, is incarcerated at Florence ADMAX USP.[34]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e "The Oklahoma Bombing Conspirators". University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mcveigh/conspirators.html. Retrieved February 26, 2009. 
  2. ^ a b c d e "Terry Nichols Biography". A&E Television Networks. http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=236030. Retrieved February 26, 2009. 
  3. ^ "Mcveighs 8/96 Filing For Access To The Media". Lectric Law Library. http://www.lectlaw.com/files/case41.htm. Retrieved February 26, 2009. 
  4. ^ Kenworthy, Tom (June 5, 1998). "Nichols Gets Life Term for Oklahoma Bombing Role". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/oklahoma/nichols.htm. Retrieved February 26, 2009. 
  5. ^ "Nichols Guilty of Conspiracy and Involuntary Manslaughter". NPR. December 23, 1997. http://www.npr.org/news/national/1997/dec/971223.nichols.html. Retrieved February 26, 2009. 
  6. ^ "Inside Bomber Row". TIME. November 5, 2006. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1555145-1,00.html. Retrieved February 26, 2009. 
  7. ^ de Vries, Lloyd (March 1, 2004). "Terry Nichols On Trial — Again". CBS NEWS. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/10/national/main605037.shtml. Retrieved February 26, 2009. 
  8. ^ Ottley, Ted. "Nichols Trial". Timothy McVeigh & Terry Nichols: Oklahoma Bombing. TruTV. http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/mcveigh/nichols_13.html. Retrieved February 26, 2009. 
  9. ^ "Terry Nichols Jury Seated". FOX NEWS. March 11, 2004. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,113880,00.html. Retrieved February 26, 2009. 
  10. ^ Talley, Tim. "Terry Nichols convicted of 161 state murder charges". MSNBC. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5077429/. Retrieved February 26, 2009. 
  11. ^ "Jury deadlocks, sparing Nichols from death penalty". CNN. June 11, 2004. http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/06/11/nichols.trial/index.html. Retrieved February 26, 2009. 
  12. ^ "Terry Nichols gets life without parole". MSNBC. August 9, 2004. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5650369/. Retrieved February 26, 2009. 
  13. ^ a b c d e "What brought Nichols to the dock?". Nichols Trial. The Denver Post. September 21, 1997. http://extras.denverpost.com/bomb/bombnp4.htm. Retrieved February 27, 2009. 
  14. ^ 1910 United States Federal Census Name: Joyce E Walton Age in 1910: 3 Estimated Birth Year: abt 1907 Birthplace: Michigan Relation to Head of House: Daughter Father's Name: Sidney M Father's Birth Place: Michigan Mother's Name: Celia L Mother's Birth Place: Michigan Home in 1910: Attica, Lapeer, Michigan Marital Status: Single Race: White Gender: Female Neighbors: View others on page Household Members: Name Age Sidney M Walton 42 Celia L Walton 39 Clarence S Walton 17 Clayton Walton 12 Edith M Walton 6 Joyce E Walton 3 Margaret A Walton 2
  15. ^ Pankratz, Howard. "Nichols' family speaks out". The Denver Post. http://extras.denverpost.com/bomb/bomb354.htm. Retrieved February 27, 2009. 
  16. ^ a b c "The Accused: Terry Nichols". Key Players: The Accused. FOX NEWS. June 11, 2001. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,26782,00.html. Retrieved February 27, 2009. 
  17. ^ a b c d e f g h Shore, Sandy (September 21, 1997). "Nichols Called Drifter, Devoted Dad". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/oklahoma/stories/tn-drifter.htm. Retrieved February 27, 2009. 
  18. ^ A search for "Lapeer High School" brought up "Lapeer West," "Lapeer East" and "Lapeer Community" high schools. A call was placed to the Lapeer School District on February 27, 2009, where the person in charge of media relations clarified that Lapeer High School (where Terry Nichols attended) closed in the mid 70's.
  19. ^ Jackson, David; Linnet Myers, Flynn McRoberts (May 11, 1995). "Portrait of a Federal Foe: Authorities Stitch Together Evidence Of Bombing Suspect Terry Nichols' Life That Shows A Failed Farmer And Soldier Who Was Left With Little Except His Hatred For The Government". The Chicago Tribune. http://www.lectlaw.com/files/cur29.htm. Retrieved February 28, 2009. 
  20. ^ a b c d e "Two Images of Nichols Emerged". The Denver Post. http://extras.denverpost.com/bomb/bombnv8.htm. Retrieved February 28, 2009. 
  21. ^ Talley, Tim (June 8, 2004). "Nichols' siblings testify in penalty phase". The San Diego Union-Tribune. http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040608/news_1n8nichols.html. Retrieved February 28, 2009. 
  22. ^ Lana met Terry Nichols in 1980 while handling his purchase of a 120-acre parcel of land around Decker, Mich. The eldest of eight children born to Ubly, Mich., dairy farmers Mark "Pete" Walsh and his wife, Evelyn (Delores) Michalski.
  23. ^ a b "Letter to Judge Joseph Bonaventure from Terry Nichols". Las Vegas Review-Journal. http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/nichols/. Retrieved February 28, 2009. 
  24. ^ American Terrorist, p. 114
  25. ^ U.S. Public Records Index Name: Terry L Nichols Birth Date: Aug 1950 Address: 315 SW 4th St #4, Topeka, Kansas 66603-0701 (1993)
  26. ^ David Joseph Nichols, in- fant son of James and Kelli. (Walsh) Nichols of Decker, died Wednesday, Dec. 5 1984, at. Huron Memorial Hospital. His mother Kelli Walsh was is the sister of Lana Walsh, wife of Terry Lynn Nichols.
  27. ^ http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mcveigh/mcveighaccount.html
  28. ^ U.S. Public Records Index Name: Roger E Moore Birth Date: Dec 1934 Address: Pob 2406, Hot Springs, Arkansas 71914-0101 (1993) [Royal, Royal, Arkansas 71968-0501 (1987)]
  29. ^ http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/mcveigh/nichols_18.html
  30. ^ Clay, Nolan (2007-02-22). "Nichols claims FBI official directed bombing: McVeigh cohort again claims robbery of a gun collector was simply staged.". McClatchy — Tribune Business News: 1. 
  31. ^ U.S. Public Records Index Name: Kenneth M Trentadue Address: 1616 S Euclid #83, Anaheim, California 92802-0501 (1991)
  32. ^ ksl.com - Salt Lake Attorney Can Question Terry Nichols on Videotape
  33. ^ Terry Nichols Will Testify On OKC Bombing | INTELWIRE Terrorism Blog | J.M. Berger | Investigative reporting on terrorism, research, Freedom of Information Act, War on Terror,...
  34. ^ "Terry Nichols." Federal Bureau of Prisons. Retrieved on January 5, 2010.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Nichols"