Bomb Witness Fortier Could Serve 23 Years

With a long-awaited indictment expected today in the Oklahoma City bombing case, the attorney for the government’s leading witness disclosed Wednesday that Michael Fortier could end up serving as long as 23 years in prison for his role.

The sentence would carry no chance of parole and, even with good time served, Fortier most likely would spend about 20 years behind bars. It is a punishment that officials hope will show that the U.S. government is not willing to go easy on any of those involved in the worst terrorist attack in the nation’s history.

Fortier, who has struck a plea bargain with the government, is expected to be indicted along with former Army buddies Timothy J. McVeigh and Terry L. Nichols--the two men accused of direct participation in the bombing. Nichols and McVeigh allegedly were involved in buying and storing the material used in the bomb. McVeigh also is accused of delivering the bomb to the blast site.

Also Wednesday, sources said that the government plans to drop--for technical reasons--the unrelated explosives charges that it filed in Michigan against James D. Nichols, the older brother of Terry Nichols who authorities suspect was a central participant in the April 19 destruction of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

One government source close to the case said that dropping of those charges does not signal that investigators no longer think James Nichols, who earlier had been portrayed as a possible “mastermind” behind the bombing, had some role in the plot.

The government’s actions are not likely to close the door on the massive federal investigation that has stretched from the desert in Arizona to the nation’s heartland. Sources said that, even with the indictment of the three men, federal officials will continue to investigate whether the bombing was the work of a wider group.

Michael McGuire, the Oklahoma City attorney for Fortier, said in an interview Wednesday that his client formally signed a plea agreement Monday with prosecutors that spells out the 23-year prison term.

He said that earlier the government had threatened Fortier with much harsher punishment, warning that “everything is on the table”--a reference that ultimately he could have been prosecuted as a full conspirator in the bombing and possibly faced the death penalty. Prosecutors appear likely to seek the death penalty against McVeigh and Nichols.

McGuire also said that, even with his client’s agreeing to plead guilty and testify against McVeigh and Nichols, he was given no promises that prosecutors later would recommend a sentence less than the 23 years if he testifies satisfactorily for the government.

“They wouldn’t consider anything like that,” McGuire said. “Sometimes you can get a recommendation as to the sentence. But there is no recommendation by the government as to the sentence in this case.”

Specifically, McGuire said Fortier will plead guilty to:

* Misprision of a felony, or having knowledge of the bombing conspiracy but failing to alert authorities. Sentence: three years.

* Conspiracy to traffic in illegal firearms. Sentence: five years.

* Trafficking in illegal firearms. Sentence: 10 years.

* Making false statements to a federal agent. Sentence: five years.

McGuire said that the gun charges involve “firearms that [Fortier] received and that he knew were stolen.” Authorities have a theory that the bombing conspiracy was financed through illegal gun-running after the robbery last fall of an Arkansas gun collector. But McGuire declined to say whether the weapons in Fortier’s possession were stolen in the Arkansas crime.

The attorney declined to speculate on why Fortier’s wife, Lori, was granted immunity from prosecution Tuesday even though she allegedly also knew of the bomb plot but did not warn authorities.

However, McGuire insisted that leniency for Lori Fortier was not a precondition to a plea bargain by her husband. Rather, the lawyer said, negotiations between the couple and the government were carried out “independent of each other.”

But McGuire also said that the couple was under intense pressure to cooperate and at the same time were worried that they might be harmed if they tried to return home to Kingman, Ariz., to wait for an indictment.

The Fortiers are guilt-ridden because the bombing killed 168 people and injured hundreds more, he said.

“For them, the rest of their lives is right in front of them, right now,” he said. “They’re trying to do the best thing they can do. And they have been very concerned about the victims in the bombing and how much people suffered through this tragedy.”

While the indictment is scheduled for today, there is a chance that grand jurors may take longer than expected to review the charges, possibly delaying action until Friday.

Defense attorneys for McVeigh reacted swiftly to news that Michael Fortier would be testifying against his former friends.

Rob Nigh, one of the lawyers, noted that shortly after the bombing, Fortier said in an interview with The Times and CNN that he knew nothing of the bombing and that he could not believe McVeigh would be involved. That turnabout speaks to a deep credibility problem for Fortier, particularly if he is brought in as the government’s star witness during the trial, the defense lawyer said.

“The obvious problem is that he stated to a national audience that he had no knowledge of the bombing and that he didn’t think Tim McVeigh did either,” Nigh said.

Asked whether it appears that Fortier is simply trying to save himself at the expense of his friends, Nigh said: “That is certainly one reasonable inference that can be drawn from this.”

The expected move to dismiss charges against James Nichols is based on prosecutors’ concerns that they would be unable to satisfy technical requirements of the three counts on which he was indicted, sources familiar with the matter said. He was charged with conspiring to possess unregistered “destructive devices” and to detonate them on his farm in Decker, Mich. The conspiracy allegedly involved his younger brother and McVeigh and lasted from 1988 to two days after the Oklahoma City bombing.

Two other counts accused him of possessing parts to be converted into a destructive device on April 21, 1995, and of possessing an unregistered destructive device in 1992.

The federal laws he is charged with violating provide that the outlawed destructive devices do not include “any device which is neither designed nor redesigned for use as a weapon,” and authorities feared they would be unable to establish that the devices linked to Nichols had been designed or redesigned as weapons.

On May 23, U.S. District Judge Paul D. Borman freed James Nichols, who had been jailed for a month, saying that he found “not one iota of evidence of dangerous acts toward others” in the evidence against him. Nichols also was being held as a material witness in the Oklahoma City bombing investigation.

In releasing Nichols, Borman restricted his travel and required him to wear an electronic monitoring device--conditions that will no longer apply if charges are dropped.

Nichols could not be reached for comment Wednesday, and his attorney Robert Elsey did not return calls.

Serrano reported from Oklahoma City and Ostrow from Washington.