Woman who led police to Nichols ready to testify

Ashley Smith Robinson, the woman credited with the capture of accused courthouse killer Brian Nichols, said Saturday that she’s ready to testify in his death penalty trial so she can get on with living the rest of her life.

“Having to relive it over and over now is hard,” Robinson said just before speaking at a rally at a faith-based recovery facility in Cherokee County.

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RICH ADDICKS / 2005 photo

‘It’ll be nice to put it all behind me,’ Ashley Smith Robinson says of her ordeal.

PHOTOS
• A look at the case 2005-present
• Penalty phase | Verdict
• Weeks in court:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

• Interactive graphic: The 2005 shootings
• Video: Nichols' confession

MORE STORIES

• 4 years after attacks, courthouse lacks security plan 
• Gwinnett won't prosecute Nichols for kidnapping 
• Feds won't seek death penalty for Nichols 
• In prison, cellphone is coveted contraband 
• Police reveal little about Nichols manhunt errors 
• Nichols trial holdouts: 'Show me something' 

• Nichols says he was at war with U.S. government in taped confession
• AJC's full trial coverage

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“It’ll be nice to put it all behind me. And it’ll be nice for the victims to put it behind them and to get closure,” she said.

Robinson — whose name Ashley Smith was immediately recognized by most — will be one of the final witnesses prosecutors call as they present their case against Nichols.

Nichols’ trial began Monday. He is charged with murdering a judge, a court stenographer, a deputy and a federal agent after escaping custody March 11, 2005.

In talks and in a book, Robinson has recounted many times what happened between her and Nichols in her Duluth apartment between 2 and 9 a.m. March 12, 2005.

Robinson told police where to find Nichols when he allowed her to leave her apartment 26 hours after he fled the Fulton County Courthouse where he was on trial for rape.

Robinson, 30, said she has had little contact with prosecutors in preparation for her testimony. The last time was to meet Assistant District Attorney Kellie Hill, when she joined the prosecution team several months ago.

Robinson starts school to become a radiologist next week. She has remarried and is raising her 9-year-old daughter, whose father was stabbed to death, and a 7-year-old stepdaughter.

Her mother died of cancer in March.

Her talks include details of her experience with Nichols as a vehicle for talking about her religious awakening. She recounts how she stopped using drugs and how she lost and regained custody of her daughter.

“I don’t talk a whole lot about that night,” Robinson said in an interview. “The story was all about God and how he used it [Nichols’ escape] to change my life.”

At the national Alcohol and Drug Recovery Month rally at the Crossroads campus of the HopeQuest Ministry, Robinson told about 30 people: “His escaping was God’s work. I haven’t done drugs since that night Brian Nichols held me hostage, and that was a miracle.”