Nichols seemed sane to witness

Brian Nichols was angry because his girlfriend dumped him. So he started using a lot of cocaine. The day he allegedly held his ex-girlfriend hostage at gunpoint, bound her with tape and raped her, he called work and said he wouldn’t be there because there were two deaths in his family.

His grandmother died, he told his boss. And when he called his mother in Africa to tell her that, he said, she had a heart attack and died, too. He would be gone for a few days, he said.

He had to fly to Africa to retrieve his mother’s body.

Were those the delusions of an insane man with visions of “grandiosity” who believed he was being unjustly persecuted by a judicial system he viewed as unfair to blacks?

Or, were they —- as a prosecution witness testified Tuesday —- just the actions of “a nut” not getting his way as he had for his entire life?

On the second day of Nichols’ trial for the March 2005 killings of a judge, court reporter, and two others, the prosecution sought to cut away at the defense plea that Nichols is not guilty by reason of insanity.

The defense, in turn, sought to discredit the main witness of the day: Gayle Abramson Csehy, the former Fulton County prosecutor who tried Nichols twice in 2005 on charges he raped his former girlfriend.

It was while awaiting the last day of the rape trial at the Fulton County Courthouse that he escaped and went on his rampage. Nichols, who has admitted to the killings, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Defense attorney Henderson Hill tried to get Abramson Csehy to acknowledge that even before the rape that Nichols’ former girlfriend and their families had feared that he might be suffering from delusion.

Hill said if Nichols were delusional and believed he was being persecuted, he could appear intelligent and normal but his actions wouldn’t line up.

Abramson Csehy countered that Nichols concocted an elaborate plan to hold his ex-girlfriend captive at her condo —- bringing with him two guns, an Army shirt emblazoned with “Ranger,” a video camera and a cooler with lunch meats.

Nichols made it clear that if his ex-girlfriend wouldn’t come back to him he would kill her and her family, and if he ended up in prison first he would wait 20 years until he got out to do the deed, the former prosecutor said.

“That behavior was very calculating and manipulative,” she said. “He came up with this plan and pursued it … he was not going to get her back any other way.”

Hill said the description showed that Nichols, who had no history of violence toward the woman, had stepped into some delusional abyss.

“Was that a plan calculated as you said —- or is that crazy?” he asked her. “I’m going to persuade the woman I love to take me back and we’re going to celebrate her birthday three days later —- that is absurd.”

Abramson Csehy said she never saw any signs of mental illness in Nichols when she met with him and his attorney during the rape trial.

She said Nichols’ attorney never mentioned his client’s alleged mental illnesses, either. Asked what Nichols’ demeanor was like during the rape trial, she replied: “Confident. I hate to use a cliche, but cool, calm and collected.”

Far from seeming delusional, she said, he seemed constantly alert and scheming. She told the story of deputies discovering “shanks” in his shoes —- that he could have used as weapons —- the day before the rampage.

She recalled how, during the second trial, a handcuffed Nichols, being escorted by deputies, tried to get the attention of jurors so the judge would have to declare a mistrial.

Abramson Csehy, who is 8 1/2 months pregnant, was on the stand for more than four hours. In the afternoon, Henderson Hill probed her again and again until she finally lost her cool during a testy exchange.

“I’m an attorney, and I know what your defense is,” she said. “And it is B.S.”