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| S P E C I A L | The Terry Nichols Trial |
Prosecutors try to tie Nichols to fertilizer purchases
November 6, 1997
Web posted at: 10:49 p.m. EST (0349 GMT)DENVER (CNN) -- Federal prosecutors in the trial of Terry Nichols spent Thursday trying to link Nichols to the purchase of two tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer -- the primary ingredient in the bomb that destroyed the Oklahoma City federal building.
Nichols is accused of conspiring with Timothy McVeigh to blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995, killing 168 people.
Two workers from a farm co-op store in McPherson, Kansas -- a manager and sales clerk -- testified that a man calling himself Mike Havens paid cash for 40, 50-pound bags of ammonium nitrate in September 1994 and again a month later.
The FBI later found a receipt for the September fertilizer purchase at Nichols' home, and defense attorneys admit in court that Nichols used similar names -- "Terry Havens" and "Joe Havens" -- when he checking into motels in Kansas and New Mexico.
Both witnesses were asked to describe Mike Havens, and their descriptions fit Nichols. However, neither witness was directly asked by prosecutors if Nichols, sitting in the courtroom, was the man who bought the fertilizer.
The sales clerk, Jerry Showalter, said that the man who bought the fertilizer was not Timothy McVeigh. The manager, Frederick Schlender, said a white man abut 6 feet tall accompanied Mike Havens when he made the second purchase. Schlender said Havens told him he was buying the ammonium nitrate to fertilize his wheat crop.
Under cross-examination, Showalter admitted that he initially told the FBI that he recalled nothing about the transactions or the customer. It wasn't until 18 months later that he offered details and provided a description.
"Why did you not tell the FBI earlier?" prosecutor Geoffrey Mearns asked.
"Fear," Showalter said.
The first purchase was on September 30, 1994 -- the day Nichols quit his job as a ranch hand and then left work early, at lunch time.
The ranch owner, Timothy Donahue, testified he saw Nichols and McVeigh together at about 7 p.m. that night, doing something behind Nichols' blue GMC pickup truck.
He said it was the last time he saw either one of them.
Witnesses also testified Thursday that Nichols rented storage lockers using phony names. Prosecutors suggested that those storage lockers were used to hide the ammonium nitrate.
Though the government's presentation got sometimes tedious, jurors seemed to be listening intently, apparently intrigued by how prosecutors were trying to piece together the puzzle.
Nichols also listened closely, often conferring with his attorneys. The defense took every opportunity to point out that not witnesses have so far heard Nichols threaten to do anything violent.
Correspondent Tony Clark contributed to this report.
T H E B O M B I N G / C N N S T O R I E S / L I N K S
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