Fellow federal agent warned victim about Nichols’ escape

About an hour and a half before he was shot and killed, U.S. Customs agent David Wilhelm talked on the phone with another federal agent about the killer fugitive on the loose in Atlanta and told the agent he had his gun with him and wasn’t worried unless Brian Nichols “got the drop” on him.

It was shortly before 9 p.m., and Agent Ryan Spradlin was calling from New Orleans. Wilhelm had taken that Friday off to work on a Buckhead home that he and wife Candee Wilhelm were building near Lenox Square.

Candee Wilhelm had been at the house earlier in the day, helping her husband tile a bathroom floor. She had gone home around 7:30 with the assurance from her husband that he would finish up in a while, and then they’d have dinner together that night.

Spradlin testified Friday that in the phone conversation with Wilhelm he talked about Nichols, who that morning had killed three people at the Fulton County Courthouse —- Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes, court reporter Julie Brandau, and Fulton County Sheriff’s deputy Hoyt Teasley —- and was the object of a citywide manhunt.

In the phone conversation with Wilhelm, Spradlin said he asked Wilhelm if he had his “piece” —- his pistol —- that he carried as a federal agent.

“You know I got that baby,” Spradlin said Wilhelm responded. “You know I have that with me.”

Spradlin then said he joked that he was not worried about his friend Wilhelm, even if Wilhelm didn’t have a gun. He had worked out in the gym with Wilhelm, and Wilhelm was so “incredibly strong” Spradlin said he called Wilhelm “Super Dave.”

He said he told Wilhelm on the phone that if he didn’t have a gun, “It wouldn’t matter anyway, because nobody could hurt Super Dave.”

Spradlin said “Super Dave” wasn’t quite that cocky.

“He said ‘I can’t really say that,’ ” Spradlin testified. “‘If he got the drop on me, then I’d have a problem. But if I got the drop on him, then he’s got a problem.’”

He told Spradlin he was tired and hungry and getting ready to pack his tools and go home and eat dinner with Candee, who testified Thursday about their last day together and sat stoically in the courtroom Friday, listening to details of her husband’s death.

Prosecutors have yet to establish for the jury, however, what exactly happened that night when Nichols encountered Wilhelm at the Canter Road home, probably around 10:30 p.m. A neighbor testified Friday she heard what might have been a gunshot but thought it was a car backfire.