August 11, 1995
OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma (CNN) -- Michael Fortier, the government's star witness in the bombing case, places the blame for the blast squarely on Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh.
In a handwritten statement attached to his guilty plea, Fortier said "Prior to April 1995, McVeigh told me about the plans that he and Terry Nichols had to blow up the federal building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma."
Fortier pleaded guilty Thursday to charges of lying to a federal agent, prior knowledge of a felony and two firearms charges. He faces up to 23 years in prison, but will not be sentenced until after he testifies in the Oklahoma City bombing case.
Fortier's one-page statement also implicates McVeigh and Nichols in the robbery of an Arkansas gun dealer last year. Fortier described a trip to Kansas last December saying, "There I was, to receive weapons that Tim McVeigh told me had been stolen by Terry Nichols and himself."
Fortier said he took 25 of the weapons to Arizona and sold some of them. The money, Fortier said, was to be given to Terry Nichols.
The Kingman, Arizona man said he didn't warn anyone in advance about the bombing and later, when asked about it by federal agents, he lied and said he knew nothing about it.
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