Defense rests without Brian Nichols’ testimony

Brian Nichols called his last witness Thursday in an effort to get a jury to spare his life.

It wasn’t Nichols himself. The 36-year-old defendant never took the witness stand to explain why jurors should let him live rather than send him to Georgia’s Death Row for murdering four people on March 11, 2005.

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Donnie Moore, pastor at Word of God Christian Center in Gwinnett County, testifies.

Kimberly Smith / ksmith@ajc.com

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard (right), leans over the bench to speak with Claudia Barnes, widow of Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes after the end of testimony Thursday.

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After the defense and prosecution rested, Superior Court Judge James Bodiford told jurors that they would return Monday for closing arguments. The judge said he will decide next week if the jurors — who convicted Nichols on Nov. 7 — will be sequestered overnight in a hotel when they begin deliberating whether to sentence Nichols to death by lethal injection or life in prison.

Next week will be the 12th week of the trial, 45 months after Nichols killed the judge presiding over his rape trail, Rowland Barnes, and court reporter Julie Ann Brandau. He also shot and killed Fulton County sheriff’s deputy Hoyt Teasley and, later that night in Buckhead, U.S. Customs agent David Wilhelm.

Lead defense lawyer Henderson Hill rested his case after calling the 144th witness, Alton Brooks Pollard, dean of the divinity school at Howard University.

Pollard, a friend of Hill’s from their days at Harvard University, testified that he befriended Nichols in visits to the Fulton County jail at Hill’s request. He described Nichols as a spiritual and intelligent man for whom he developed respect despite the crimes.

“There is no such thing as a human being who is beyond the pale of redemption, of salvation, of life,” Pollard said.

“We were always talking about his faith, and mine. … He was wrestling with the implications of his own life — who he was and who he represented and how he mattered.”

On questioning by lead prosecutor Kellie Hill (no relation to the defense attorney), Pollard said he didn’t know that while Nichols was talking to him, he was also plotting escapes and was willing to kill other people, if necessary.

Earlier, Nichols’ former pastor testified that Nichols drank a six-pack of beer a day, smoked pot and spent thousands of dollars for sex with Asian prostitutes at Atlanta massage parlors.

Donnie Moore, pastor of the Word of God Christian Center in Gwinnett County, said that allowed demons of Nichols’ spirit to push him into the rages that caused the rape of Nichols’ former girlfriend as well as the courthouse killings.

But Nichols’ life is still worth saving, said Moore, comparing Nichols to the Apostle Paul, who became a changed man and devoted his life to Christ after years of persecuting Christians.

The pastor said that he talked to Nichols on Wednesday about restoring his Christian faith.

Moore said that Nichols once was a faithful member of his church. But the pastor had no idea that, during that same period, Nichols was leading a double life of beer, drugs and hookers.

On cross-examination, prosecutor Clint Rucker challenged Moore’s belief in Nichols. Why was Moore so fearful of Nichols that he agreed to go into protective custody while Nichols was still at large after the shootings?

“I could have stayed home,” he said, “but I thought that protective measures should be taken when a person is enraged.”

Rucker pushed on Moore in a futile effort to knock him off his position that Nichols should be spared.

“The concept of just pure evil exists in the world, doesn’t it?” asked Rucker.

Yes, Moore agreed.

“Even in the context of your religious belief there are some people who just can’t be saved?”asked Rucker.

“I don’t agree with that,” said Moore, explaining that Christ believed that all people can be saved — even Nichols.