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| S P E C I A L | The Terry Nichols Trial |
Nichols convicted of some charges in Oklahoma City bombing
December 23, 1997
Web posted at: 6:53 p.m. EST (2353 GMT)DENVER (CNN) -- A federal jury found Terry Nichols guilty of eight counts of involuntary manslaughter Tuesday in connection with the April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people -- the deadliest act of terrorism on U.S. soil.
The jury rejected first-degree murder charges, but did find that Nichols conspired to use a weapon of mass destruction.
Nichols could face the death penalty for the conspiracy charge.
The jury of five men and seven women began their deliberations one week ago on December 16 after hearing emotional final arguments in U.S. District Court from prosecutors and defense attorneys.
A L S O :
Nichols verdicts, count-by-count
Unlike the jurors who convicted Timothy McVeigh of murder and conspiracy and sentenced him to death for the bombing, 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 -- both non-death penalty offenses.
The McVeigh verdict was reached after 23 1/2 hours of deliberations over four days.
Shortly before deliberations in the Nichols trial began, U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch described to the jury each count against Nichols -- conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, use of a weapon of mass destruction, bombing of federal property and the murders of eight federal law enforcement officers in the line of duty.
Prosecutors claimed men were in cahoots
Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building April 19, 1995
Prosecutors contended that former Army buddies Nichols, 42, and McVeigh, 29, worked together for months to plot the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in retaliation for the deadly FBI siege of the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, exactly two years earlier.
Prosecutors accused Nichols of helping 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.
U.S. Attorneys Beth Wilkinson, Larry Mackey
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 Michael Tigar painted a glowing portrait of Nichols as a man dedicated to his family who had cut his ties to McVeigh.
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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