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| S P E C I A L | The Terry Nichols Trial |
Mixed verdict for Nichols in OKC bombing
December 23, 1997
Web posted at: 10:15 p.m. EST (0315 GMT)Latest developments:
- Defense files motion challenging split verdict
- 41 hours of deliberations
- DA to seek murder charges against Nichols, McVeigh
- Prosecutors claimed men were in cahoots
- Defense: Nichols wasn't there
- Related stories and sites
DENVER (CNN) -- Jurors convicted Terry Nichols Tuesday of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter in the Oklahoma City bombing, finding he was a junior partner rather than an equal to Timothy McVeigh in the deadliest act of terrorism on U.S. soil.
Nichols, who still could face the death penalty on the conspiracy charge, frowned and was somber as the mixed verdict was announced. Two jurors wept softly along with several of the victims and relatives in the courtroom.
After the jury was dismissed, defense attorney Michael Tigar placed his hands on Nichols' shoulder. Nichols stood, looking stunned and licking his lips.
As Nichols was led from the courtroom, his brother, James, muttered: "It ain't over."
A L S O :
Nichols verdicts, count-by-count
Oklahoma City bombing trial - Transcripts
Newsmaker Profiles: Terry Nichols
The jury found Nichols not guilty of two other counts: use of a weapon of mass destruction and destruction of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building by explosive.
The unusual split verdict suggests the jury might be inclined to opt for a sentence other than the death penalty.
Defense files motion challenging split verdict
Meeting with reporters outside court after the verdict, Tigar had little to say.
CNN's Susan Candiotti reports the verdict in the Terry Nichols trial
10 min. VXtreme audio
Defense attorney Michael Tigar reacts to the verdicts
334K/15 sec. AIFF or WAV sound
Government prosecutor Larry Mackey's statement following the verdicts
"The verdict speaks for itself," he said. "We'll wait until the process is concluded before we say anything else."
Said lead prosecutor Larry Mackey: "The jury has spoken. We accept the verdict in its entirety. We are prepared to proceed to the penalty phase."
Tigar immediately filed a motion challenging how the jury could have convicted Nichols of a capital conspiracy count on the one hand, and involuntary manslaughter -- rather than premeditated murder -- on the counts covering the deaths that resulted from that conspiracy.
A hearing was scheduled for 9 a.m. Wednesday, when the defense is expected to argue that there should be no death penalty phase because of the mixed verdict.
41 hours of deliberations
The jury of seven men and five women deliberated for 41 hours over six days before reaching the verdicts.
The prosecutors' case, built on fertilizer receipts, phone records and Ryder truck sightings, was not enough to convince them that Nichols was an equal to McVeigh.
Nichols, who was in his Kansas farmhouse more than 200 miles away at the time of the bombing, was portrayed by his defense team as a family man who was "building a life, not a bomb."
The penalty phase is scheduled for Monday. Nichols is expected to rely heavily on his family to help get him avoid the death penalty.
Unlike the jurors who convicted McVeigh of murder and conspiracy and sentenced him to death for the bombing that killed 168 people, the panel that weighed Nichols' fate on the same 11 counts as McVeigh had the option of returning a conviction for second-degree murder or involuntary manslaughter.
DA to seek murder charges against Nichols, McVeigh
U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch instructed the jury to consider the lesser charges only if they were unable to find premeditation in the eight first-degree murder charges in the deaths of eight federal employees killed in the bombing.
Second-degree murder, which carries no more than a life term, is killing "without premeditation and malice." Involuntary manslaughter, which alone carries no more than six years in prison, was defined as "the unlawful killing of a human being without malice."
In Oklahoma City, District Attorney Bob Macy said after the verdict that he would seek 160 murder charges against Nichols and McVeigh in state court for the other deaths in the bombing.
Nichols' verdict came six months after McVeigh was convicted on all murder, conspiracy and weapons charges. McVeigh's verdict was reached after 23 1/2 hours of deliberations over four days.
At the site of the bombing in Oklahoma City, a hush settled over a small group of bombing victims and family members as they heard the verdict in the driving rain. After learning a verdict had been reached, motorists started honking their horns.
Prosecutors claimed men were in cahoots
Prosecutors contended that former Army buddies Nichols, 42, and McVeigh, 29, worked together for months to plot the bombing of the Murrah building in retaliation for the deadly FBI siege of the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, exactly two years earlier.
Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building April 19, 1995
Prosecutors accused Nichols of helping McVeigh build the bomb, pack it inside a Ryder truck the day before the blast and drive McVeigh to Oklahoma City three days before the explosion so he could drop off his getaway car.
Government prosecutors claimed that Nichols and McVeigh used the same pre-paid phone cards in their attempts to find bomb ingredients. They contended, too, that Nichols robbed an Arkansas gun dealer who knew McVeigh, taking guns and other valuables to help finance the attack.
Nichols was accused of stealing dynamite and blasting caps from a quarry near the Kansas farm where he worked, and storing the materials in sheds rented under a fictitious name.
In addition, two workers from a farm co-op store in McPherson, Kansas, 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.
Prosecutors said a sales receipt for one of the purchases was found in Nichols' home after the bombing.
Prosecutors believe the fertilizer was mixed with fuel oil and packed into barrels to make the bomb. Government witnesses testified they saw a Ryder truck and a pickup resembling Nichols' parked not far from his Herington, Kansas, home at a lake where prosecutors say the bomb was built.
According to prosecutor Beth Wilkinson, Nichols "intentionally and knowingly" joined McVeigh in the deadly plot.
Defense: Nichols wasn't there
Defense attorneys argued that the two men were merely business associates who sold army surplus items at gun shows in the Midwest, and that Nichols knew nothing of the bombing plans.
The surest bet for the defense was something not even the prosecution disputed: that on the day of the bombing, Nichols was at home in Kansas, not in Oklahoma City.
Nor did the prosecution present any witnesses who claimed to have heard Nichols say he wanted to blow up anything, as was the case with McVeigh.
Also, from the beginning of their presentation, defense attorneys raised the possibility that it was an unidentified and as-yet-unapprehended man known as John Doe No. 2 who assisted McVeigh with the bombing.
Nichols' lawyers presented witnesses who said they saw McVeigh with a dark-skinned man before and after the bombing. They also introduced a letter they said McVeigh wrote to an Arizona man, attempting to enlist him in his cause. The letter included an apparent reference to Nichols, whom he scorned for abandoning the cause to take care of his family.
In closing arguments, defense attorney Tigar painted a glowing portrait of Nichols as a man dedicated to his family who had cut his ties to McVeigh.
Correspondent Tony Clark and 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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