DEL.ICIO.USUpdated: 6:14 p.m. October 27, 2008
Nichols’ defense rests
Jury expected to begin deliberating next week
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Monday, October 27, 2008
Brian Nichols rested his insanity defense Monday without taking the witness stand to convince jurors in his murder trial that he is not in his right mind.
His mother testified for two days about what she described as signs that her son had become deranged from the spring of 2004 to March 11, 2005, when he went on shooting rampage at the Fulton County Courthouse where he was on trial for rape.
John Spink/jspink@ajc.com
Claritha Nichols, Brian Nichols’ mother, testified Monday.
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Lead prosecuting attorney Kellie Hill told Superior Court Judge James Bodiford that the state would spend three days calling witness to rebut a psychologist’s claim that Nichols suffers from a delusional disorder that made him think he was leading a “slave rebellion” against the justice system. The jury is expected to start deliberating next week after about six weeks of trial.
On Monday, prosecutors sought to rip apart the testimony of a key defense witness — the defendant’s mother, Claritha Nichols — who testified to some of the more bizarre elements of the trial, including a scheme to use rap artists such as Snoop Dogg to mount a public-relations campaign in support of her son.
She testified powerfully, and, at times tearfully, how she feared her son had lost his mind when he was accused of raping his former girlfriend in August of 2004. She said he became deranged when his mind continued to deteriorate while he was in the Fulton County jail awaiting trial.
She said she loved his former girlfriend “like a daughter.” By the time of the rape trial seven months later, she was worried her son’s mind had become so addled he might have plans to take a hostage in the courtroom.
A tear ran down her cheek as she recalled getting the text message that her son had escaped and killed four people: Barnes, court reporter Julie Ann Brandau, deputy Hoyt Teasley, and U.S. Custom’s agent David Wilhelm.
She read from e-mails in which she wrote she wish her son had died in the attacks, and “that would have been the wisest choice for him.” She said now she regrets the comments, but she was distraught. “It was the absolutely worse feeling I’ve ever had in my life,” she said.
Prosecutor Hill played a tape of jailhouse phone conversations between Nichols and her son discussing a rap PR campaign to rally support around her accused killer son, in which she asked him if he had any ideas for the message he wanted sent out to the masses.
“They’re used to treating us like dogs and kicking us and watching us tuck our tails between our legs in submission,” Brian Nichols read from a prepared statement to his mother. “But even the most domesticated and trained dogs when constantly kicked will eventually turn around and bite your ass.”
On the tape, Claritha laughed. “I need to write that in my journal today,” she said, then cautioned her son that he tone down his rhetoric to sound more intelligent and sophisticated.
She told Hill the conversation wasn’t serious, at least not to her, and she did nothing to follow up on the scheme. Instead, she was just trying to appease a son she considered mentally ill.
“He’d just go off on a tangent and be totally crazy,” she testified.
“And this was one of those — I was just trying to humor him so he wouldn’t become agitated.”
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