DEL.ICIO.USGwinnett won’t prosecute Nichols for kidnapping
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter has decided not to prosecute convicted murderer Brian Nichols for allegedly holding a woman hostage inside her apartment while he hid from authorities in 2005.
Porter said he filed paperwork to drop kidnapping and aggravated assault charges against Nichols on Tuesday. He is waiting for a judge’s approval to make it official. Prosecuting Nichols would not have been a good use of public resources, since he already is serving life in prison without parole for his deadly shooting spree at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta, Porter said.
John Spink/jspink@ajc.com
Ashley Smith Robinson testified at Brian Nichols’ trial.
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Security issues also played a part in the decision.
“I’m convinced that Brian Nichols is going to kill somebody else, and I don’t want it to be a Gwinnett County deputy,” Porter said. “The security nightmare of bringing him to Gwinnett is not worth the teeny tiny satisfaction that we might get from his conviction.”
Nichols was on trial for rape on March 11, 2005, when he overpowered a deputy and ran into a courtroom, killing Fulton Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes and his court reporter Julie Brandau. Nichols also shot and killed Hoyt Teasley, another deputy, outside the courthouse.
He then fled to Buckhead, where he killed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent In Charge David Wilhelm. Wilhelm was off duty at the time and working on his home near Lenox Square mall.
While on the lam, Nichols was accused of kidnapping Ashley Smith Robinson at gunpoint outside her Duluth apartment. He held her captive in the apartment for seven hours as law enforcement officers throughout metro Atlanta were searching for him.
Robinson slowly won his confidence during the ordeal, and he eventually let her leave to visit her daughter.
Nichols was convicted in December and received multiple life-without-parole sentences after a Fulton County jury deadlocked on the death penalty. Porter said Robinson was fine with the decision not to prosecute Nichols in Gwinnett because “she kind of wants to get on with her life.” Robinson, whose surname was Smith in 2005, has remarried, enrolled in college and moved to Hall County to live with her husband and daughter, Porter said. Robinson could not be reached for comment Thursday morning.
Last week, U.S. Attorney David Nahmias also announced that he would not seek to a federal prosecution of Nichols for the slaying of Wilhelm.
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