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| S P E C I A L | The Terry Nichols Trial |
Defense: Case against Nichols 'woefully lacking'
Nichols
Closing arguments to conclude Tuesday
December 15, 1997
Web posted at: 11:38 p.m. EST (0438 GMT)Latest developments:
- Tigar: Fortier's testimony 'bought and paid for'
- The case against Nichols
- Defense: Government jumped to conclusion
DENVER (CNN) -- Attacking everything from the FBI's handling of evidence to the testimony of star prosecution witness Michael Fortier, defense attorneys for Terry Nichols on Monday called the government's case against him in the Oklahoma City bombing "woefully lacking."
Lead attorney Michael Tigar opened the defense summation, which will continue Tuesday, by saying the government's case was built on testimony "bought and paid for" with a promise of immunity and on "flawed or meaningless" scientific evidence from the FBI Crime Lab.
The defense's remarks followed the government's closing argument, in which prosecutor Beth Wilkinson -- backed by two huge photos of the Oklahoma City federal building before and after the bombing -- told jurors there is an "avalanche of evidence" against Nichols.
A L S O :
Oklahoma City bombing trial - Transcripts
Newsmaker Profiles: Terry Nichols
Illustrating the case with a picture of a two-lane road linking the two photos of the federal building, Wilkinson said Nichols and convicted bomber Timothy McVeigh embarked on a "road of destruction" in fall 1994 that ended with the 1995 bombing.
The road was marked with signs detailing each step the former Army buddies allegedly took: collecting bomb components, renting storage sheds and finally building the bomb that killed 168 people on April 19, 1995.
Tigar: Fortier's testimony 'bought and paid for'
During the defense's closing argument, Tigar attempted to cast doubt on Fortier's testimony, recalling that Fortier initially lied to FBI agents but then changed his mind and implicated both Nichols and McVeigh.
"The Marine Corps builds men. The FBI builds witnesses," Tigar said.
Calling the testimony "bought and paid for," Tigar said Fortier testified under an agreement in which he could get a sentence reduction after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI and failing to warn authorities of a bomb plot.
"The government has skimmed over a lot of holes in the case and asked you to speculate," added Nichols attorney Ron Woods. "It's woefully lacking."
The case against Nichols
Prosecutors contend Nichols and McVeigh decided to bomb the federal building to avenge the government raid at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, which left about 80 people dead. The Waco raid took place two years to the day before the Oklahoma City bombing.
Conceding that Nichols was not in Oklahoma City on the day of the bombing, the government says he helped build the bomb and arrange McVeigh's getaway.
Wilkinson
Wilkinson said Nichols quit his job at a Marion, Kansas, farm in late September 1994, and bought two tons of explosive ammonium nitrate fertilizer from a Kansas co-op over the next month, using the alias "Mike Havens."
Mocking the defense mantra that Nichols was at home "building a life, not a bomb," Wilkinson said: "He wasn't building a life, he was building a bomb and he was building an alibi."
She said Nichols helped McVeigh steal explosives from a rock quarry, lent McVeigh his pickup to help carry racing fuel and robbed an Arkansas gun collector to get spending money for himself and his partner.
FBI agents searching Nichols' house found items stolen from the gun collector, a drill traced to the quarry burglary and plastic barrels similar to those used in the bombing, Wilkinson said.
The government also says Nichols helped McVeigh pack fertilizer, fuel and explosives into plastic barrels inside a Ryder truck the day before the bombing and that he left Easter dinner with his family in Kansas three days before the bombing to help McVeigh hide a getaway car in Oklahoma City.
"These two men were together from the beginning to the end," the prosecutor said.
The government also tried to undermine defense testimony about sightings of a mysterious John Doe No. 2, a man shown in FBI sketches who witnesses claim to have seen with McVeigh. The defense has tried to suggest McVeigh worked with others, not Nichols.
Wilkinson said the sightings were "about as credible as sightings of Elvis."
Defense: Government jumped to conclusion
Defense lawyers told the jury that the government's case is not what it seems, that nobody ever heard Nichols say he was going to build a bomb or blow up a building and that nobody saw him at the Kansas lake where the bomb was built.
Tigar accused the FBI of mishandling evidence, calling into question the Ryder truck panel that contained embedded ammonium nitrate crystals and the drill bits found at Nichols' house that purportedly link him to the quarry robbery.
Defense attorney Woods said the FBI rushed to judgment early in the investigation and chose to "discount and ridicule" any evidence contradicting its theory.
Woods noted that the government had "jumped to the conclusion" that both Nichols and his brother, James, were involved, but later had to release James Nichols after holding him as a material witness.
"It's a huge mistake to theorize before one has the facts because you begin to twist the facts to match the theory," Woods said.
Nichols' father and brother made their first courtroom appearances since the trial began 52 days ago. Nichols' wife, Marife, and mother and sister also were in the courtroom, along with about two dozen bombing victims.
Court adjourned for the day before the defense finished its summation, which is expected to continue Tuesday morning. Lead prosecutor Larry Mackey will then have the final word before the jury gets the case, which is expected to happen later in the day.
Nichols faces 11 charges, including murder and conspiracy. If convicted, he could be sentenced to death. McVeigh, 29, is appealing his verdict and death sentence.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
T H E N I C H O L S T R I A L / T H E M c V E I G H T R I A L
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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