Drill Bit Cited in Nichols Trial

Prosecutors at the murder trial of Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry L. Nichols used a drill bit Wednesday to try to link him to the theft of blasting caps and detonation cord from a rock quarry.

James Cadigan, a retired FBI tool-mark examiner, testified that a bit seized from Nichols’ home after the April 19, 1995, bombing made the distinctive markings found in a drill hole in a padlock at the quarry near Marion, Kan.

“That was the drill that was used,” Cadigan said.

Explosives, including detonation cord and blasting caps, were stolen from the quarry less than seven months before the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The quarry was about 25 miles from Nichols’ home in Herington, Kan.

Prosecutors say detonation cord and blasting caps were among the components of the 4,000-pound fertilizer-and-fuel bomb that destroyed the federal building, killing 168 people.

Nichols attorney Barbara Bergman questioned Cadigan at length about his experience and about the accreditation of the FBI laboratory’s tool-mark unit. The defense also sought to raise doubts about FBI procedures for examining drill-bit evidence and questioned whether a comparison was possible based on cuts and grooves left by such a bit.

Prosecutors allege Nichols and Timothy J. McVeigh worked to gather the components for the bomb and build it.

McVeigh was convicted on federal charges and executed in 2001.

Nichols is on trial on 161 state charges of murder, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. He is serving a life sentence on federal charges.