DEL.ICIO.USUpdated: 12:16 p.m. October 08, 2008
Nichols says he was at war with U.S. government in taped confession
He describes himself as a ‘noble soldier’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Brian Nichols was at war with the United States government and “all of the persons killed were employees of the United States government, there was no collateral damage” he claimed in a videotape confession played Tuesday detailing how he shot and killed four people during a 26-hour crime spree.
On Wednesday, jurors watched another segment of the taped confession, and Det. Vincent Velazquez continued to testify about it.
John Spink/jspink@ajc.com
Brian Nichols listens to testimony Tuesday during his trial in Atlanta.
• Video: Watch an excerpt of Nichols' confession
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Nichols, on trial for the March 11, 2005 killings of a judge, a court reporter, a deputy, and a federal agent, appears calm in the video as he sits at a table at Atlanta police headquarters on the afternoon of March 12, and talks for three hours with Atlanta Police Department homicide detective Vincent Velazquez, while sipping from a canned soft drink.
“Let me just start by saying that, you know, I give my condolences to all the families of those who were killed, um, in combat,” he tells Velazquez in a high-tenored, almost meek voice.
Nichols was then on trial on rape charges when he is accused of overpowering a deputy in a holding cell, then shooting and killing the Superior Court judge in his case, Rowland Barnes, and court reporter Julie Ann Brandau in Barnes’ courtroom, where Nichols was to appear later that morning.
Nichols said he was provoked to start the war by a “multitude of different things,” including the conditions in the Fulton County jail, and the prison system of Georgia where “prisoners are required to work for free… you really have no choice other than to work… it parallels significantly the treatment of slaves.”
He said: “I felt as though I was a slave with them. As a soldier, I don’t feel like I committed any war crimes. There was no collateral damage.”
He described the way he overpowered female deputy Cynthia Hall, saying: I had to actually hit her a couple of times,” then he said he knew she was not dead. “I’m aware that she is going to pull through.”
He explained how he cuffed Barnes’ staff and held them hostage until he slipped into Barnes’ courtroom during a civil hearing and killed Barnes and Brandau, shooting each once in the head with Hall’s pistol.
He said he killed Barnes because “at the time I thought of Judge Barnes as the Master. The slave master.” Barnes described the shooting of Barnes and Brandau almost clinically.
“I engaged the target, which was Rowland Barnes,” he said. “And um, I engaged the secondary target, which was his court stenographer.”
Nichols said he shot and killed federal agent David Wilhelm later that night at the Buckhead home where Wilhelm was doing tile work in a bathroom, because Wilhelm identified himself as a treasury agent.
He said Wilhelm pulled a gun on him: “I was able to take out the target, prior to him actually firing his weapon,” said Nichols. “He identified himself um, and I just, I was just quicker.”
Later in the three-hour confession, Nichols says he doesn’t remember shooting court reporter Brandau. “I didn’t actually realize that I had shot her until there were reports on the news about that… I have no conscious recollection of that.”
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