Defense Seeks to Downplay Nichols’ Role

Lawyers for accused Oklahoma City bomber Terry Lynn Nichols on Tuesday began laying out their case that their client was not the right-hand man for Timothy McVeigh in carrying out America’s worst terrorist attack.

Nichols’ defense, which began shortly after prosecutors wrapped up their case earlier in the day, sought not only to distance him from McVeigh, but also to raise new doubts about whether others were involved in helping mix, pack and deliver an ammonium nitrate and fuel oil bomb to the front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City.

The defense’s initial witnesses included several people who remembered seeing a Ryder truck at the Dreamland Motel in Junction City, Kan., a day before one was rented by McVeigh--an implication that more than one such truck was used in the April 19, 1995, blast and that the motel was a meeting place for McVeigh and other conspirators.

The motel owner, Lea McGown, testified that while McVeigh was a guest there, he often was darting in and out of her establishment in the days before the bombing. But she said she never saw Nichols in his company. Rather, she said, she once overheard a group of men talking in McVeigh’s room, and none of them was Nichols.

Another defense witness was David Ferris, a taxi driver in Junction City who recalled driving McVeigh--alone--to a McDonald’s restaurant, from where McVeigh then walked to the Ryder rental agency. Ferris testified that he did not see anyone meet McVeigh at the restaurant.

Defense lawyers next showed the jury photos from a surveillance camera at the McDonald’s, again with McVeigh alone at the restaurant.

McVeigh was found guilty earlier this year and sentenced to death in the bombing that killed 168 people and injured more than 500.

The defense strategy appears clear: Convince the jury of seven men and five women that at best Nichols was unknowingly used by McVeigh to further his bomb plans. Better yet, the defense lawyers hope to show that someone other than their client was the key co-conspirator.

The defense case follows four weeks of prosecution testimony in which witnesses placed Nichols and McVeigh alongside one another in the months--and final days--before the blast.

The last government witness Tuesday was a Marine captain now stationed at Camp Pendleton who took the stand in his dress blue uniform to describe the deaths of two comrades that morning in the recruiting office on the sixth floor of the Murrah building. Capt. Matt Cooper was the 98th prosecution witness during 20 days of testimony.

“At 9:02, suddenly we just heard a huge explosion.” he said, “An earth-shattering noise that lasted 30 to 45 seconds. Then came a concussion, followed by the sounds of the Murrah building falling down around us.”

In the past weeks, the government has shown that the FBI found a drill and drill bits at Nichols’ home that match those used to break a padlock in the theft of blasting caps and other explosive material from a Kansas rock quarry.

The FBI also found numerous items in his home that allegedly were stolen from an Arkansas gun collector, with the proceeds believed used to further the bomb conspiracy.

In addition, testimony has shown that plastic shards found at the bomb scene are similar to the material used to make blue-and-white barrels recovered from Nichols’ garage.

And there has been some evidence linking him to the purchase of large amounts of ammonium nitrate, including a sales receipt for fertilizer with McVeigh’s fingerprint that was found in Nichols’ home.

When the government rested its case, defense lawyers asked Judge Richard P. Matsch to grant an acquittal, arguing that the government had not proved Nichols was a conspirator or had shown any intent on his part to destroy the building.

“The government has simply failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove that,” said defense lawyer Adam Thurschwell. “The evidence in this case is strikingly weak for first-degree murder.”

Matsch denied their request without even asking to hear the government’s response.

In opening statements on Nov. 3 in the Nichols trial, chief defense lawyer Michael Tigar described Nichols as someone who is gullible and could have been used by a manipulative McVeigh to help him gather and store bomb components.

He said Nichols had worked as a partner with McVeigh selling items at gun shows, but never knew of his plans to avenge the deadly FBI raid on a religious cult at Waco, Texas, by blowing up the Oklahoma City federal building.

“Terry Nichols was Tim McVeigh’s business associate, and he had befriended Tim McVeigh,” Tigar said. The lawyer added: “Tim McVeigh did not treat his friends very well.”

Tigar is trying to show that McVeigh had many other associates, any one of whom could have been his collaborator in the bombing.

Late Tuesday afternoon, the defense called Shane Boyd, an Army sergeant who had stayed at the Dreamland Motel and recalled seeing an unidentified “Hispanic male” around McVeigh’s motel room on the weekend before the blast.