Court Shootings Suspect Appears at Hearing




By BILL POOVEY, Associated Press Writer

ATLANTA - Shackled and surrounded by 19 officers in a cinder-block jail room, the suspect in a rampage that left a judge and three others dead appeared before a magistrate Tuesday and was informed that authorities plan to charge him with murder.









Brian Nichols appeared before Cobb County Magistrate Frank Cox on the same rape charge that he was on trial for Friday when he escaped from another courthouse. Nichols spoke only once at the hearing, when Cox asked him if he had any questions.


"Not at this time," he said.


Officers lined the walls of the room during Tuesday's hearing. Authorities said Nichols had been alone with a female deputy Friday when he stole her gun and then shot to death the judge presiding over his rape case and two others. He also is accused of killing a federal agent as he eluded police.


During the five-minute hearing, Nichols looked straight ahead and did not make eye contact with anyone in the room, including the judge when he spoke to him.


Cox was brought in to hear the case after all the judges in Fulton County excused themselves because of their relationships with Judge Rowland Barnes and the other victims.


Assistant District Attorney Michele McCutcheon informed Cox that the state will pursue four charges of murder against him. Nichols was held without bond and no future court hearings were set.


All people who are booked into the Fulton County Jail make their first appearance before a judge at the jail. However, there usually are only three or four officers on hand for most jail hearings.


On Tuesday, in addition to 19 officers lining the walls of the room, several more blocked the hall outside. While everyone entering the jail must pass through a metal detector, everyone entering the hearing room also was searched by a handheld metal detector.


Defense attorney Chris Adams told reporters after the hearing "this is a time of grief and mourning" for the courthouse community.


Officials declared a mistrial in Nichols' second rape trial Monday. His first trial was a mistrial as well.


The prosecutors in those trials said Nichols lashed out because he believed the jury was going to convict him in the second. If convicted, he faces a sentence of up to life in prison.


After being the focus of a 26-hour manhunt, the largest in Georgia history, Nichols was arrested Saturday morning at an apartment complex where he had taken a woman hostage, then let her go free after several hours.


Some residents are questioning how local law enforcement let an armed inmate elude their grasp for so long.


Security cameras had been rolling Friday morning as Nichols — a former college linebacker who had been found in court earlier in the week with two homemade knives in his shoes — overpowered deputy Cynthia Hall as the 5-foot-tall officer escorted him to his rape trial. No one was monitoring the cameras.


Authorities said Nichols escaped the courthouse in a Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority train. They said he took the train north to a pricey neighborhood where he allegedly gunned down a federal agent.


"I don't understand why they didn't have the MARTA staked out," said Maryanne Fry, a neighbor of slain immigration agent David Wilhelm. "I really wish they had."





As Nichols vanished from the courthouse, investigators focused on finding the car they believed he was in. Thirteen hours later, the car was found in the same parking garage where it was carjacked minutes after the shootings.

MARTA spokeswoman Jocelyn Baker said investigators are still reviewing surveillance videos for evidence that Nichols was on a commuter train.

The first indication that Nichols had taken the train came 13 hours after the shootings.

Officers received a report of a couple assaulted near the train station at Lenox Square in north Atlanta by a man matching Nichols' description. The man had brandished a gun and demanded money or a vehicle before striking one of them in the head with the gun and fleeing.

The attack was about half a half block from the home of Wilhelm, whose body was found early Saturday. His blue pickup truck, pistol and badge had been taken.