McALESTER, Okla. – Nearly a decade after the Oklahoma City bombing, Terry Nichols was found guilty of 161 state murder charges Wednesday for helping carry out what was then the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil. He could get the death sentence he escaped when he was convicted in federal court in the 1990s.
The verdicts came just five hours after the jury began deliberations. Nichols was stone-faced and stared straight ahead at the judge as the verdicts were read, while his attorneys bowed their heads and clenched their hands together.
A juror wiped tears from her eyes as the conviction was announced and several others appeared to have been crying. Prosecutors beamed, and family members hugged and congratulated them.
“I’m just so thrilled for these families,” said a tearful Diane Leonard, whose husband died in the bombing. “After nine years, the families who lost loved ones finally have justice.”
Oklahoma prosecutors brought the case with the goal of finally winning a death sentence against Nichols, who is serving a life term on federal charges in the 1995 bombing. The same 12-member jury will now determine Nichols’ fate on the state charges: life in prison or death by injection. The penalty phase will begin Tuesday and is expected to last about three weeks.
Prosecutors contended Nichols worked hand in hand with former Army buddy Timothy McVeigh to acquire the ingredients and build the fuel-and-fertilizer bomb in a twisted plot to avenge the government siege in Waco, Texas, that left about 80 people dead exactly two years earlier.
The April 19, 1995, blast at the Alfred Murrah Federal Building killed 168 people. McVeigh was executed in June 2001, and until now was the only person convicted of murder in the bombing.
Nichols was convicted in federal court in 1997 of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of eight law officers. Oklahoma prosecutors later charged Nichols with the deaths of the 160 other victims and one victim’s fetus. Nichols also was found guilty of first-degree arson and conspiracy.
“He’s responsible for everything. We’ll take care of him one way or another,” said Doris Delman, who lost her daughter, Terry Rees, in the bombing.
Associated Press
Terry Nichols is led into court Wednesday in McAlester, Okla., to await the verdicts in his murder trial.
Associated Press
Diane Leonard (left), who lost her husband, Don, in the Oklahoma City bombing, and Sharon Davis, who lost her daughter Kathy Seidl, walk from the courthouse Wednesday after Nichols was convicted.
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