BRIAN NICHOLS TRIAL: WITNESSES FOR DEFENSE TESTIFY

> Brian Nichols’ defense team called state prisoner Matthew Wilder Thursday to help prove their claim that Nichols was insane when he committed what is called the Fulton County Courthouse shooting. Wilder, 28, said he first met Nichols after both arrived at the Fulton courthouse on March 11, 2005, for their respective trials. As they were sitting together in the detention center, Wilder said the then-33-year-old Nichols asked him if he was guilty of the charges against him. After Wilder, who would be sentenced to 10 years for carjacking, claimed innocence, Nichols asked: “What are you going to do if they find you guilty? And I said, ‘Appeal it until I get out.” Wilder testified. “He was out of it. I asked him what he was going to do and he just shook his head and said, ‘They’re just messin’ with me man.’ “

Later that morning, Nichols overpowered his guard, took her weapon and started the shooting rampage.

> Another witness the defense called allegedly to help the insanity claim was Nichols’ lawyer at his rape trial. Barry Hazen testified Nichols was intelligent but his aberrant and inexplicable behavior made him think Nichols suffered from a mental illness —- but he never mounted an insanity defense. “I didn’t think Brian suffered from any delusions,” Hazen told defense attorney Henderson Hill. “I don’t like to raise a defense that I don’t think is meritorious.” His lawyers contend a deluded Nichols felt persecuted by the justice system. Hazen said Nichols was convinced his rape victim loved him and wouldn’t testify against him, and, even if she did, jurors would love him and acquit.

> Army Sgt. Charlie Maurice Sellers testified that he’s known Nichols since 1997. They drank beer and played basketball together, and used to talk about their mutual girlfriends, and how their relationships with the women were similarly “roller coaster.” Sellers said he still considers Nichols, four years his junior, his “little brother.” Sellers recalled that when Nichols told him he had gotten a woman other than his girlfriend pregnant, he jokingly threatened to beat Nichols with a motorcycle helmet. “What are you thinking about?” he asked Nichols. On cross-examination, Clint Rucker peppered Sellers with questions about how well he really knew Nichols. Sellers said he was “shocked” when he learned that Nichols was accused of raping his girlfriend. Rucker asked him if he was surprised to know Nichols had a machine gun and handgun, which he took to his girlfriend’s house when he raped her. Rucker shot back: “Do you still think you know him?”

Sellers answered in almost inaudible voice: “No sir.”

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

“[Nichols and his friends] liked to play that Halo video game,” said Nichols’ friend Army Sgt. Charlie Maurice Sellers. Halo is a science-fiction video game that is premised on rebellion and civil war. “The object is … to see who can get the most kills,” Sellers said.