Oklahoma Bomb Case Witness Allowed

The federal judge in the Oklahoma City bombing case ruled Friday that testimony from an important government witness will be allowed at the trial of Timothy J. McVeigh.

Judge Richard P. Matsch said that he will allow testimony by Thomas Manning--owner of a Junction City, Kan., tire store--that tends to implicate McVeigh.

Manning has said he recalls that McVeigh was at his shop but left about the time that government records show phone calls were made from a pay phone near the shop to a Ryder rental agency and to the home of Terry L. Nichols, the co-defendant in the bombing case.

The government alleges those calls were made by McVeigh on April 14, 1995, three days before the truck was rented from the Ryder agency and five days before the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

The ruling is seen as important for the government because defense attorneys had sought to discredit Manning. They argued that Manning did not remember McVeigh leaving his shop until after almost a dozen interviews with federal investigators. In those earlier interviews, Manning told prosecutors McVeigh remained at the shop throughout the period in question.

But the judge said there is “no reason” to disallow Manning’s testimony because, as he sees it, Manning had in fact remembered that McVeigh left the shop but “said he did not think it was important” to mention it to investigators earlier.

“The jury will have an adequate opportunity to judge the credibility of Mr. Manning,” Matsch said.

Matsch will take up other defense challenges to prosecution witnesses next week. He set two days of hearings in Denver, where the trial has been moved, to address discrepancies in the recollections of people at the Ryder agency, as well as evidence of forensic and scientific experts that the government plans to call to the stand.

The bombing killed 168 people. McVeigh is to stand trial March 31. A trial for Nichols is to follow.