DEL.ICIO.USThree years after the courthouse shootings, grief unites relatives on both sides as the July 10 trial date approaches.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/11/08
As mourners gather today to mark the third anniversary of the Fulton County Courthouse rampage, the accused gunman's father says his only plan is to brace himself and try to make it through the day.
Gene Nichols, whose son, Brian, is awaiting the start of his death penalty trial, said he has been surrounded by sadness every day since the March 11, 2005, killings.
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"It never leaves you," he said Friday. "I don't think it's going to get any better. You try to go to sleep at night, and if you can, that's the only time it leaves you."
Now the father must prepare himself for his son's upcoming trial, set Monday for July 10. A previous judge delayed the trial five times due to requests for more money from Nichols' defense team. A new judge, Superior Court Judge Jim Bodiford, was brought in from Cobb County last month to expedite the trial.
Bodiford announced Monday that he plans to hold court on Saturdays and maybe even some Sundays to meet his goal of finishing the case before Christmas.
Claudia Barnes, widow of the first shooting victim, Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes, had a two-word reaction Monday to the announcement of the trial date: "That's cool."
"My loved one was assassinated doing his job," she said. "For the case to drag out for any length of time is bad."
Barnes will be among those attending a private memorial service at the courthouse Tuesday.
"It's not that [a verdict] will bring closure," she said, "but it will put a final chapter behind me."
Instead of being divided by anger and blame, Claudia Barnes and the family of the man charged with killing her husband have been united by grief.
She said she instinctively has reached out to comfort Gene Nichols and his wife, Claritha, whom she believes are two more victims of the tragedy.
"It was kind of heart wrenching that someone is having to be there for their child in a place where everyone is looking at you," she said. "I just felt very bad they were put in a situation maybe they had no control over. It would be very humiliating for a family."
Gene Nichols said he and his wife have also reached out to the widow to let her know they are sorry for her loss.
Gene Nichols said his son was mentally ill the day he shot a judge, court reporter, sheriff's sergeant and federal agent. He is praying at least one juror decides to spare his son's life.
But he also believes a life in prison could be worse.
"I really don't know if he's afraid of death," he said of his son. "I'm not. Death sometimes is better than living."
After his arrest, Nichols told police he felt like a "soldier on a mission" exacting revenge on a judicial system he feels is unfair to African-Americans. He feared he was about to go to prison for a rape he claims he didn't commit and grew weary of awaiting trial in jail and looking at a sea of black faces.
He escaped his rape trial by attacking a deputy and stealing her gun.
During Nichols' videotaped confession, he detailed his crimes, including the four killings. He describes how he flung the much smaller female deputy into the concrete wall like a rag doll and grabbed her gun. Then, instead of escaping down nearby stairs, he ran across a skybridge to hunt down the judge in his rape case.
He said Barnes was nice, but part of a larger system of injustice. He also killed the judge's court reporter when she stood to check on the judge. He said he shot the sheriff's sergeant outside the courthouse so he could escape and he later shot the federal agent in Buckhead while stealing his car.
He admitted holding a Gwinnett County woman hostage in her apartment before surrendering to police the next day.
"I was actually very impressed that they didn't shoot me when I walked out the door," Nichols told police in a videotaped interview March 12, 2005.
Nichols' attorneys are preparing to argue that Nichols suffered from a delusional compulsion and couldn't control his actions. The day before the alleged rape, Nichols supposedly told a minister at his church: "There is a demon inside me . . . and it's getting very powerful. I don't know what I'm capable of doing."
Gene Nichols said if he and his wife had realized their son needed help, they would have made sure he got it.
"People just don't decide they're going to go off the deep end for no reason at all," he said. "He wasn't in his normal state of mind."
Prosecutors say Nichols was angry, not ill, and first took his rage out on his former girlfriend and then on the courthouse community. They have pointed to his three-hour confession, something defense attorneys unsuccessfully tried to keep out of the trial.
Claudia Barnes said she has studied Nichols' face during court hearings over the past three years, but has not seen signs of remorse. Instead, sometimes she feels he cut his eyes to look at her, other relatives of victims and reporters.
"I think it still boils down to responsibility for your own actions and behavior," she said. "I may have depression and anxiety, but I don't go out and kill people because I'm not happy with my situation."
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