Witnesses recall horror of Oklahoma City blast

Latest developments:

• Man testified he saw Ryder truck
• 'Can you help me?'
• Mother describes looking for young son
• Man who helped with ID sketches won't testify

DENVER (CNN) -- The chaos was so great after the Oklahoma City federal building exploded that "I didn't know if we were going to get out," a woman who was in a nearby building testified at Timothy McVeigh's trial Friday.

Another woman described rushing to the federal building to search for her toddler son, who was in the second-floor day care center. He was later found dead.

On the first day of testimony, jurors got first-hand accounts of the bloody blast that sheared off the front of the building, killing 168 people.

McVeigh, who could face the death penalty if convicted of murder and conspiracy in the deaths of eight federal agents in the April 19, 1995, bombing, showed no emotion. He sat at the defense table with his hand on his chin covering his mouth.

The government opened its case with the testimony of nine people who saw or heard the explosion. The last, fire department photographer Danny Atchley, will return to the stand Monday.

The first witness was attorney Cynthia Lou Klaver, who provided an audiotape that captured the sound of the explosion and confusion immediately after the blast.

She was taping a meeting across the street when the bomb struck the Alfred P. Murrah federal building, and the tape was played in court.

Klaver's voice can be heard, followed by sounds of concrete and metal being ripped apart.

Klaver's Audiotape Text of tape (Poor audio quality) (42 sec./898K AIFF or WAV sound)

"Basically there are four elements that I have to receive information regarding .....BOOM!"

Chairs can be heard falling and Klaver yells, "Everybody, let's get out of here now!"

Klaver screams: "Watch the electricity line...Watch the line. Watch the line!"

"Everybody get out. Out the back door. All the way to your right...hurry!"

"I thought the whole building was coming down on us," she testified. "I didn't know if we were going to get out."

Man testified he saw Ryder truck

Next on the stand was Randy Norfleet, a former Marine recruiter who said he saw the Ryder truck that contained the bomb parked outside the building just before it exploded.

After passing the truck, Norfleet went to his sixth floor office, and had just arrived when the explosion occurred. Shrapnel tore out Norfleet's right eye. He said two Marine sergeants guided him to emergency stairs.

"I was amazed at first that the stairs were even there, because the rest of the building was gone," Norfleet said. "I remember following a blood trail of somebody who went down before me."

Under cross-examination, defense attorney Cheryl Ramsey asked Norfleet if he saw McVeigh in Oklahoma City that morning.

"No, I did not," he replied.

'Can you help me?'

Later, a 4 1/2-minute videotape of the immediate aftermath of the bombing was shown in court. The scenes were shot by Phil Monahan, a photographer for CNN affiliate KOCO-TV.

Monahan said that as he was shooting video, a woman tapped him on the shoulder and said, "My baby is in the day care. Can you help me?"

Tears interrupted the testimony of Susan Hunt, office manager for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which lost 35 of its employees -- the highest death toll of any federal agency.

Hunt said she had just exchanged morning greetings with many of them. She escaped by walking down an emergency stairwell with six other survivors. As she read for the court the names of those who died, she had to stop at times because she was crying so hard.

Mother describes looking for young son

Donna Weaver, the wife of one of the HUD victims, worked several blocks away and walked over to the building after she heard the explosion. When she got there, she found a "big gaping hole" where her husband's office used to be.

"I just stared at it," she said. "I was hoping that he wasn't in it. Then a voice talked to me and told me in my head that I had to be careful and I couldn't get hurt and I had to take care of those boys [her two sons] -- and I think that was Mike telling me."

Helena Garrett, whose 16-month-old son Tevin died in the explosion, told of being blocked as she tried to enter the wrecked building, then waiting outside as emergency workers brought out children -- first those who were alive, then the dead.

She sobbed as she talked about Tevin's best friend, and about her son's funeral.

"They had some white sheets and they started bringing our babies out and they wrapped them in sheets and they laid them next to me," she said. "And I didn't want to leave them. And I didn't see Tevin."

Her son's body was not found for three days, and was identified by fingerprints matched with those taken off a bedroom picture of Mickey Mouse.

Man who helped with ID sketches won't testify

Jurors listened intently throughout the graphic and emotional testimony. At one point, a woman juror cried into a blue tissue. A man on the panel soon joined her in tears. At a break, two women prosecutors wept in the hallway.

McVeigh, a decorated Army veteran who served in the Gulf War, sat expressionless, leaning his elbows on the defense table. He will be tried separately in the other 160 deaths.

A planned prosecution witness whose description of the man who rented the Ryder truck helped lead to McVeigh's arrest has been dropped, CNN learned Friday.

Tom Kessinger, a mechanic at Elliott's Body Shop in Junction City, Kansas, gave investigators the description that led to the suspect sketches called John Doe No. 1 and John Doe No. 2. Authorities later matched McVeigh to the John Doe No. 1 sketch.

The man depicted in the sketch of John Doe No. 2, sought as an accomplice in the case, turned out to be another customer who had been in the store on a different day. He was later ruled out as a suspect in the Oklahoma City bombing.

Although that was a case of mistaken identity, Kessinger's contention that another man was with McVeigh when he rented the truck is still an unresolved aspect of the case.

But Kessinger has a criminal record and has had several run- ins with the law. Instead of using Kessinger to identify McVeigh as the man who rented the truck, the prosecution will rely on Eldon Elliott, the owner of the rental office, sources tell CNN. Elliott says he saw McVeigh when he came to reserve the truck and later when he picked it up.

Also, CNN learned that Lori Fortier, wife of government informant and star witness Michael Fortier, may testify as early as next week. She will take the stand under immunity.

Correspondents Tony Clark and Susan Candiotti contributed to this report.

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