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Serial Killer Documentary - The Courthouse Killer · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

0:05
Speaker 1: In the United States of America, some of the world's
0:09
Speaker 1: most dangerous and notorious criminals are locked behind bars.
0:14
Speaker 2: Ryan Nichols is not only a murderer who murdered innocent
0:17
Speaker 2: victims in a port of law. He definitely with somebody
0:20
Speaker 2: who engaged in all kinds of different crimes.
0:24
Speaker 1: While on trail for rape, Brian Nichols went on a rampage.
0:29
Speaker 3: He hit her so hard that her head went against
0:31
Speaker 3: the cinder black wall, knocked her out.
0:34
Speaker 4: I forced my way into the court and I saw
0:36
Speaker 4: Judge Barnes Lane with blood coming out of the back
0:39
Speaker 4: of his head.
0:40
Speaker 1: A prisoner who was armed and dangerous was free and
0:43
Speaker 1: on the run.
0:45
Speaker 3: He forces his way into a grunette woman's apartment. I
0:48
Speaker 3: was concerned because he was now out. I then called
0:51
Speaker 3: my wife and told her to get our daughter out
0:53
Speaker 3: of school.
0:54
Speaker 2: He's just willing to mow over anyone who gets in
0:57
Speaker 2: his way, so he's absolutely still danger no matter.
1:01
Speaker 3: Where he is.
1:02
Speaker 1: Brian Nichols suddenly claimed the top spot in America's most wanted.
1:07
Speaker 5: Brian Nichols assaults a deputy, steals her gun, then hunts
1:11
Speaker 5: down and murders Judge Rolling Barnes and his court reporter
1:14
Speaker 5: outside Deputy Hoy Teasley is shot and killed by Nichols
1:18
Speaker 5: on the sidewalk.
1:20
Speaker 1: Even when he was securely locked behind bars. Brian Nichols
1:23
Speaker 1: posed a serious threat to everyone.
1:25
Speaker 6: He meant.
1:27
Speaker 3: They move him from place to face. They do not
1:29
Speaker 3: let the same guards garden him for a prolonged period
1:31
Speaker 3: of time because they don't want them to get too
1:35
Speaker 3: comfortable with him. And if he gets out, there's no telling.
1:39
Speaker 6: What he might do.
2:09
Speaker 1: Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison is a maximum security facility
2:14
Speaker 1: home to around two five hundred inmates.
2:19
Speaker 7: A maximum security prison, it's more restrictive. They have gun posts,
2:24
Speaker 7: there's more fences. The theme that makes maximum security prisons
2:28
Speaker 7: more dangerous is that the inmates in there usually usually
2:32
Speaker 7: have a longer sentence, so they've already made it up
2:37
Speaker 7: their minds that they're going to live and die in prison.
2:39
Speaker 6: That's their home.
2:40
Speaker 7: So when it does kick off, they go all the way.
2:43
Speaker 3: They they'll attempt to kill you.
2:45
Speaker 1: One of the most feared inmates kept behind bars here
2:48
Speaker 1: is mass murderer Brian Nichols.
2:52
Speaker 3: I think he's the kind of person that's always thinking,
2:55
Speaker 3: always analyzing, always looking for the crack on the wall,
2:58
Speaker 3: always looking for the light through the door. I think
3:01
Speaker 3: Brian could be a potential escape risk. I think if
3:16
Speaker 3: Nichols felt cornered, I think he would very possibly kill again.
3:24
Speaker 3: He with a natural bowing color.
3:30
Speaker 1: In stark contrast to many of the world's most dangerous prisoners,
3:34
Speaker 1: thirty three year old Brian Nichols had enjoyed a good life.
3:39
Speaker 3: He was educated, he was employed at a pretty good job,
3:43
Speaker 3: and apparently he was pretty good at it, and he
3:48
Speaker 3: basically he was living a successful life.
3:51
Speaker 1: But everything changed when he was accused of rape and
3:54
Speaker 1: aggravated abuse by a former girlfriend.
3:58
Speaker 3: He was facing very significant jail time if he got
4:02
Speaker 3: convicted of any number of the counts that were lodged
4:06
Speaker 3: against him.
4:07
Speaker 1: Nicholls behavior in court made everyone nervous.
4:12
Speaker 3: Before I left the house, I remember the last thing
4:14
Speaker 3: I said to my wife was I don't feel safe
4:15
Speaker 3: in that court room.
4:17
Speaker 1: Their fears were confirmed when Nichols suddenly turned violent.
4:21
Speaker 3: And one of the deputies went into the lock up
4:24
Speaker 3: with her gun. At that point in time, he hit her.
4:29
Speaker 3: Hit her so hard that her head went against the
4:31
Speaker 3: cinder block wall, knocked her out.
4:33
Speaker 1: Now on the loose in the courthouse, Nichols went on
4:37
Speaker 1: a killing spree.
4:38
Speaker 3: June Barden wouldn't have seen him come into the main room.
4:41
Speaker 3: Brian shot June Bards on the left side of the head.
4:45
Speaker 1: He then took his rampage out onto the streets.
4:48
Speaker 8: And there was a house with a door open, and
4:51
Speaker 8: there was a federal agent and they are working on
4:53
Speaker 8: his bathrooms. He ended up killing the man, and shortly
4:59
Speaker 8: after that when he kidnapped a girl.
5:03
Speaker 3: Something happened that made him go from kind of a
5:06
Speaker 3: regular person to somebody who had killed four people.
5:18
Speaker 1: Nichols grew up in a middle class family during the
5:21
Speaker 1: nineteen seventies and eighties in Baltimore, Maryland. He was a
5:26
Speaker 1: good student and a talented sportsman.
5:30
Speaker 3: He had a very involved family and they were intact.
5:33
Speaker 3: They were together, so he had people who liked him.
5:39
Speaker 3: He had a body of friends.
5:43
Speaker 1: At the age of twenty one, Nichols was kicked off
5:46
Speaker 1: the college football team for stealing and moved to Atlanta, Georgia,
5:51
Speaker 1: seeming to make a new start. Nichols secured a steady
5:54
Speaker 1: job at a multinational technology company, and he had got
5:58
Speaker 1: himself a girlfriend.
6:01
Speaker 3: She was a very successful woman in the Times. I
6:04
Speaker 3: spoke with her. I found her to be very intelligent,
6:08
Speaker 3: very articulate, very well put together intellectually. She had a
6:13
Speaker 3: lot going for her, and that was a good compliment
6:16
Speaker 3: because Brian was also very intelligent.
6:22
Speaker 1: In two thousand and four, when Brian Nichols was thirty
6:25
Speaker 1: two years old, his life took a sudden downward spiral
6:29
Speaker 1: when he was accused of rape.
6:33
Speaker 3: I am Barry Hazen. I'm an attorney, criminal defense attorney,
6:36
Speaker 3: and i represented Brian Nichols in two thousand and four
6:41
Speaker 3: and five where he was charged with the rape in Atlanta, Georgia.
6:45
Speaker 3: The woman who lodged the complaint against Brian as a
6:48
Speaker 3: woman who who had been in a relationship with him
6:52
Speaker 3: for a number of years. They didn't live together, but
6:57
Speaker 3: they were very much a couple in a lot of ways.
7:01
Speaker 3: I know they were talking about getting married.
7:03
Speaker 1: The relationship was not without its difficulties, and Brian was
7:07
Speaker 1: not faithful.
7:09
Speaker 3: He did have another relationship during that period of time,
7:14
Speaker 3: and there was another woman and she became pregnant through Brian,
7:19
Speaker 3: and that created a lot of turmoil in Brian's relationship.
7:23
Speaker 1: Brian's girlfriend eventually left him, but Brian was not ready
7:27
Speaker 1: to let her go.
7:28
Speaker 2: What's interesting about rape is that people think of rape
7:32
Speaker 2: as a sex crime, and while yes, it has a
7:35
Speaker 2: horrific sexual component, the real driving factor behind rape is control.
7:41
Speaker 2: And so it sounds like in this case, his girlfriend
7:44
Speaker 2: had left him, which caused a void, which caused anger,
7:48
Speaker 2: which caused resentment. So as a result of that anger,
7:52
Speaker 2: he decided to ductape her and rape her and sodomize
7:56
Speaker 2: her in order to exert control over a situation that
7:59
Speaker 2: he no longer had control over it.
8:02
Speaker 3: The first time I met and saw Brian was at
8:05
Speaker 3: the Fulton County Jail. He was being held without bond.
8:08
Speaker 3: The conditions at the Fulton County Jail were not very
8:11
Speaker 3: good conditions.
8:11
Speaker 9: At all.
8:15
Speaker 3: Of the jails I go to. I think it's probably
8:17
Speaker 3: the least desirable place to be.
8:23
Speaker 7: Inmates that end up in County jail can be anywhere
8:25
Speaker 7: from getting a DUI, driving under the influence, murder, rape, molestation, robbery,
8:32
Speaker 7: armed robbery.
8:35
Speaker 3: We spent probably an hour hour and a half talking
8:38
Speaker 3: back and forth about the facts of the case with clients.
8:42
Speaker 3: Sometimes you build a relationship right away, sometimes it takes
8:45
Speaker 3: a while. But when Brian there was a.
8:48
Speaker 1: Bond, Barry Hazen knew Nichols faced significant jail time as
8:53
Speaker 1: he had been charged with a number of offenses.
8:58
Speaker 3: I think there are about six or seven counts altogether,
9:02
Speaker 3: but of course the biggest one was rape, which could
9:05
Speaker 3: get you a life sentence in Georgia. The aggravated assault
9:09
Speaker 3: was very serious. I can get you up to twenty
9:10
Speaker 3: years in Georgia. The others were less, but the serious
9:14
Speaker 3: He was facing very significant jail time if he got
9:18
Speaker 3: convicted of any number of the counts that were lodged
9:22
Speaker 3: against him. I knew it was going to be a
9:26
Speaker 3: challenging case, because any time that you have a sex
9:30
Speaker 3: related case, a rape case, you're walking uphill with the rock.
9:38
Speaker 3: But I liked Brian. I found Brian to be very intelligent,
9:43
Speaker 3: very articulate, very warm with me, very respectful of me.
9:48
Speaker 3: And I believed that there were sufficient facts to work
9:52
Speaker 3: with to be able to defend Brian.
9:54
Speaker 1: But there was one issue about Nichols that niggled Berry.
9:59
Speaker 3: I thought that Brian and was taken with himself. I
10:03
Speaker 3: think that Brian had perhaps certain narcissistic tendencies. I didn't
10:10
Speaker 3: think he was mentally ill, but I thought that there
10:12
Speaker 3: were certain issues that I needed to take note of.
10:18
Speaker 1: On February twenty first, two thousand and five, the trial
10:22
Speaker 1: started at Fulton County Courthouse. Despite building a strong rapport
10:26
Speaker 1: with his client, very quickly noticed there were red flags
10:30
Speaker 1: in Nichols's behavior.
10:32
Speaker 3: The first day of trial, I think the judge was
10:37
Speaker 3: being tested by Brian. Ryan immediately said he had to
10:41
Speaker 3: go to the bathroom, I remember, and it must have
10:44
Speaker 3: been in there for twenty minutes, and the judge was
10:47
Speaker 3: asking where is he, where is he? Where is he?
10:48
Speaker 3: What's what's going on here? And he ordered me to
10:50
Speaker 3: go in there to get him, and Brian was just
10:54
Speaker 3: standing there. And so I don't know what was going
10:59
Speaker 3: on other than the fact that we already had a
11:01
Speaker 3: judge that was irritated.
11:03
Speaker 1: Superior Court Judge Roland Barnes was presiding over the hearing.
11:09
Speaker 4: He was understanding and he cared about people. He could
11:16
Speaker 4: care if you were richal poor, he cared about you.
11:21
Speaker 4: Almost everybody wanted to go in front of Judge Barnes
11:25
Speaker 4: because they know they would be treated fear.
11:29
Speaker 1: The trial continued for five days, and throughout Barry was
11:33
Speaker 1: concerned about what Nichols would try next and.
11:37
Speaker 3: Didn't feel threatened by him At all, but I felt
11:40
Speaker 3: that he was being kind of a powdy kid in
11:44
Speaker 3: a way, being resistive to the authority of the court
11:48
Speaker 3: over him.
11:49
Speaker 1: Despite Nichols's provocative behavior, Barry was doing his best to
11:53
Speaker 1: secure a positive outcome for his client.
11:57
Speaker 3: It went really well for him. I mean, the vote
12:00
Speaker 3: was eight four not guilty. And then there was a
12:03
Speaker 3: discussion with the judge and the district attorney myself.
12:06
Speaker 1: It was a hung jury. The prosecutors wanted a retrial,
12:10
Speaker 1: but Judge Barnes was not keen.
12:12
Speaker 3: The judge did not want to retry the case. He
12:14
Speaker 3: wanted them to let it go, and his faithful decision
12:17
Speaker 3: for him. Throwing up his hands, said okay, then we'll
12:19
Speaker 3: retry it on Monday.
12:20
Speaker 1: The prospect of sitting alongside Brian Nichols again for.
12:24
Speaker 3: The retrial made very nervous. I thought the danger was
12:28
Speaker 3: a possibility. Something was up. I wasn't sure what it was.
12:31
Speaker 3: I didn't know if I had anything planned, but I
12:34
Speaker 3: thought the mind was spinning at that point in time.
12:38
Speaker 3: I thought we could have a problem.
12:46
Speaker 1: Early morning on March seventh, two thousand and five, the
12:50
Speaker 1: retrial of thirty three year old Brian Nichols for the offenses,
12:53
Speaker 1: including the rape and battery of his former girlfriend, began.
13:00
Speaker 6: My name is Brantley White.
13:02
Speaker 4: I was a sergeant with the Fulding County Sheriff Department
13:05
Speaker 4: and a bailiff for a Judge rode On Barnes on
13:09
Speaker 4: the Brion Nichols case. At the courthouse, you are controlling
13:16
Speaker 4: the courtroom. You are brain inmates in front of the judge.
13:23
Speaker 4: Brion Nichols was very quiet as carrying a bible. He
13:30
Speaker 4: didn't give any problems. He complied with whatever you tell him.
13:39
Speaker 1: Nichols appeared to behave himself. That was until day four
13:45
Speaker 1: when Judge Barnes made a shocking discovery and the judge.
13:49
Speaker 3: Called us into chambers and he was very angry, which
13:52
Speaker 3: is unusual for Judge Barnes. He was such an easy
13:55
Speaker 3: going man that he had a Manila folder and he
13:59
Speaker 3: tossed the folder across the desk almost at me, like
14:02
Speaker 3: an anger, and the pictures slid out of the folder.
14:05
Speaker 3: There were two photographs, and he said, here, this is
14:07
Speaker 3: what we found in your client's shoes yesterday. They looked
14:12
Speaker 3: like hinges without the spindles because they had holes in
14:15
Speaker 3: him and you could see that hadn't been sharpened, they
14:16
Speaker 3: had been scraped. We found out later that it was
14:19
Speaker 3: the frame from the light fixture in his cell that
14:22
Speaker 3: he had taken apart, and he had two of those planks,
14:25
Speaker 3: one in each shoe. That's when I thought, well, wait
14:28
Speaker 3: a minute, we're going beyond being resistance here. Something's not right.
14:34
Speaker 3: There was a threat he had crossed the line with me.
14:38
Speaker 1: While Barry could never have imagined what his client would
14:41
Speaker 1: do next, the judge was evidently nervous.
14:46
Speaker 3: The tension level on that Thursday was high. The judge
14:51
Speaker 3: seemed concerned. The judge said, we need to get things
14:54
Speaker 3: off the tables that he can use. For instance, you
14:57
Speaker 3: know they have these little plastic discs that you run
14:59
Speaker 3: wire through. The judge ordered those removed from the table.
15:03
Speaker 3: He the water pitchers removed from the table so they
15:06
Speaker 3: couldn't be used as a weapon. The judge actually said,
15:09
Speaker 3: we need more beef in the court, and that's the
15:11
Speaker 3: way you put it. I remember looking back to see
15:14
Speaker 3: if there was going to be more beef, and they
15:16
Speaker 3: had the same middle aged woman deputy about thirty feet
15:22
Speaker 3: behind him, and she wasn't going to be in to help,
15:25
Speaker 3: And so I became concerned and then the judge he
15:27
Speaker 3: put his hand on my shoulder and said, you need
15:30
Speaker 3: to stay alert because you're sitting right next to him.
15:39
Speaker 1: On the final day of the retrial, Nichols was as usual,
15:43
Speaker 1: being held in Fulton County Jail until proceedings began in
15:47
Speaker 1: the courthouse. Grantly White was the bailiff assigned to Judge
15:51
Speaker 1: Barnes that day.
15:53
Speaker 4: I always every morning before the court starts, pray protection
16:00
Speaker 4: to God to protect me. This is the first time
16:05
Speaker 4: I have given an interview about.
16:09
Speaker 6: What happened. It's hard to talk about it.
16:18
Speaker 10: On Marsh the eleventh, two thousand and five, the last
16:24
Speaker 10: day for the trial of Barrin Nicholas, I asked the
16:28
Speaker 10: judge if I can go, if I can get breakfast,
16:31
Speaker 10: and he said yes.
16:33
Speaker 4: He was just stucking to attorneys about their feet and
16:37
Speaker 4: he felt safe that nothing would happen.
16:42
Speaker 3: And Nicholas was hearing from Rice Street in Fulton Kenny
16:45
Speaker 3: Jail by van each morning to the courthouse and there's
16:49
Speaker 3: a sally port kind of on the back of the
16:53
Speaker 3: courthouse where they bring prisoners in. They don't come in
16:55
Speaker 3: through the main entrance and they're brought up in an elevator,
16:57
Speaker 3: you know, I secured elevator to whatever floor the court
17:01
Speaker 3: room is on, and then he'd be escorted into that.
17:09
Speaker 3: Before I left the house, I remember the last thing
17:11
Speaker 3: I said to my WiFi is I don't feel safe
17:13
Speaker 3: in that. Up until the day before, I had no
17:18
Speaker 3: problem with it. I knew he was being a problem
17:22
Speaker 3: for other people, but I didn't really think he was
17:25
Speaker 3: a physical threat. But suddenly I did.
17:33
Speaker 1: At eight forty five am, Nichols had been transferred from
17:37
Speaker 1: Fulton County Jail to a holding cell located in the
17:41
Speaker 1: new building of Fulton County Courthouse.
17:44
Speaker 6: There's alage, risks and balls.
17:48
Speaker 4: When an m counts to court on a jury trial,
17:53
Speaker 4: he's brought upstairs to change into civilian clothes.
17:57
Speaker 6: He opened a door.
18:00
Speaker 4: And then you remove the handcuffs from the inmate and
18:06
Speaker 4: released him into holding cell. This is very risky because
18:11
Speaker 4: most problems happened when you moving the handcuffs from inmates.
18:18
Speaker 1: Nichols was being escorted into the court by a female deputy.
18:23
Speaker 3: He took pride in being a ladies man and being
18:26
Speaker 3: able to charm people. The deputy she liked him. She
18:30
Speaker 3: actually told me this guy is innocent, so she felt that,
18:35
Speaker 3: you know, she was forming a kinship with him.
18:37
Speaker 1: The deputy had built a trust with Nichols and had
18:40
Speaker 1: let down her guard.
18:43
Speaker 3: And one of the deputies went into the lock up
18:47
Speaker 3: with her with her gun at that point in time,
18:51
Speaker 3: he hit her, hit her so hard that her head
18:54
Speaker 3: when he against the cinder block wall, knocked her out.
18:57
Speaker 3: He took her key, and now he also come put
19:00
Speaker 3: on civilian clothes, and he's got a gun, and then
19:03
Speaker 3: calmly walked across that bridge from the new building into
19:06
Speaker 3: the old building where Judge Barnes is.
19:09
Speaker 4: As I turned the corner to go down the hallway,
19:14
Speaker 4: I saw the person with a gun in the hand.
19:22
Speaker 4: Then I recognized it was Brian Nichols. He didn't shoot
19:29
Speaker 4: me right away, so I figured he didn't want to
19:34
Speaker 4: kill me.
19:35
Speaker 6: So I decided to see if I can.
19:38
Speaker 4: Talk to him, and I asked him what he was doing,
19:43
Speaker 4: and he kept saying, don't do anything. Don't do anything, sir,
19:46
Speaker 4: don't do anything. And I tried to tell him, well,
19:50
Speaker 4: there's no reason for him to do it. He said
19:53
Speaker 4: it's too late for that.
19:56
Speaker 1: Rather than make his escape, it appeared that Nichols had
19:59
Speaker 1: a plan and was intent on vengeance and took Grantly hostage, and.
20:06
Speaker 4: He put the gun to the back of my head
20:08
Speaker 4: and he took my gun. He walked me into Judge's
20:13
Speaker 4: office and when I walked through the door, I saw
20:18
Speaker 4: there were some of the folks that worked.
20:22
Speaker 6: For the judge.
20:24
Speaker 4: Then Brian Nicholas said to me, handcuffed these folks. I
20:29
Speaker 4: didn't want to do it. One of the lady said, please, Grantly,
20:35
Speaker 4: please do what he said. Then he said, handcuff yourself.
20:43
Speaker 4: Brian Nichols threw the handcuffs at me and I looked
20:47
Speaker 4: at it and I saw blood on him. I knew
20:49
Speaker 4: that belongs to my deputy cause her name was engrave Onned.
20:54
Speaker 4: The thought ran through my mind that he had killed her.
20:59
Speaker 4: I handcuffed my and I tried to make them loose
21:01
Speaker 4: so maybe I can get out of them, because I
21:04
Speaker 4: knew that under the judge's desk was a dressed button.
21:08
Speaker 4: As I stand over by the desk, I thought to myself,
21:16
Speaker 4: how am I going to do this? So I decided
21:20
Speaker 4: to fake a heart attack and fell down on my knees.
21:23
Speaker 4: And as I fell down on my knees, I pushed
21:26
Speaker 4: the button underneath the judge's desk.
21:32
Speaker 1: Central Control responded to the alarm call, but Nichols was
21:36
Speaker 1: ready and reported all was well, but operators said something
21:41
Speaker 1: was very wrong.
21:43
Speaker 6: One of the sergeants in the central control knew my.
21:46
Speaker 4: Voice and said, that's not White, that's not Sergeant White's voice.
21:52
Speaker 4: Then I heard one of the ladies said, Sergeant, he's gone,
21:57
Speaker 4: He's gone.
21:58
Speaker 1: Well. Grantly grabbed his rado to tell central control what
22:02
Speaker 1: had just happened. Nichols was tracking down his first kill.
22:06
Speaker 3: He then calmly walked into Judge Barnes's chambers. I remember
22:09
Speaker 3: Judge Barnes is on the bench on the divorce case.
22:12
Speaker 3: He walks into chambers unlocked door and then goes from
22:16
Speaker 3: chambers into the court room. Judge Barton wouldn't have seen
22:20
Speaker 3: him come into the main room, and just immediately Brian
22:23
Speaker 3: turned to his right shot Judge Bards on the left
22:26
Speaker 3: side of the head. When Julie Brenda the court border,
22:30
Speaker 3: turned around, he shot her and then left the court
22:36
Speaker 3: room through the main door.
22:40
Speaker 1: Grantly had heard the gunshots and ran to the courtroom.
22:44
Speaker 4: I forced my way into the courtroom and I saw
22:47
Speaker 4: Judge Barnes lane by his desk of blood coming out
22:50
Speaker 4: of the back of his head and I saw Julie.
22:55
Speaker 6: I meant to put a bunch of Depts grab me
22:57
Speaker 6: and pulled me out of the courtroom.
22:58
Speaker 1: Nichols was making his bold for freedom.
23:01
Speaker 3: He then went down the stairs and one of the
23:05
Speaker 3: deputies went running after him.
23:11
Speaker 1: Having shot the judge and the court reporter, Brian Nichols
23:15
Speaker 1: began his escape from the County courthouse.
23:18
Speaker 2: Nichols targeted the judge because he really believed the judge
23:21
Speaker 2: was probably responsible for his fate. While the judge may
23:26
Speaker 2: have been responsible for having finding him guilty or not
23:29
Speaker 2: guilty and imposing sentence, what Nichols is unable to process
23:34
Speaker 2: in his mind is that it's not ultimately the judge's fault.
23:37
Speaker 2: It's his fault. He's the one that chose to engage
23:40
Speaker 2: in the rape. He's the one that chose to engage
23:42
Speaker 2: in the violence. He's the one that.
23:43
Speaker 6: Got himself arrested.
23:44
Speaker 2: But he's unable to take accountability for his actions.
23:48
Speaker 1: Nichols was trying to escape the courthouse but was being
23:51
Speaker 1: chased down.
23:54
Speaker 3: He got down to the bottom floor, and when the
23:56
Speaker 3: deputy came running after him through the door, shot the deputy.
24:00
Speaker 3: Also Deputy Teasley.
24:04
Speaker 4: I thought, in my mind it maybe a deputy had
24:08
Speaker 4: shot by Nicholas, but he had shut one of the
24:12
Speaker 4: deputies that proceeded down the stairs behind him.
24:17
Speaker 6: That's horrible. It was a horrible day.
24:25
Speaker 1: As forty three year old father of two, Hoyit Teasley
24:28
Speaker 1: lay dying, Nichols went on the run.
24:33
Speaker 2: It really shows not only the level of savagery and
24:37
Speaker 2: sadism that Nichols was willing to go to in order
24:40
Speaker 2: to gain his freedom in a way that was clearly
24:43
Speaker 2: never going to work long term, but also his lack
24:46
Speaker 2: of accountability. What makes Nichols such a dangerous prisoner is
24:50
Speaker 2: that he's willing to go to really great lengths to
24:52
Speaker 2: get his needs met. That's just the way Nichols thinks.
24:58
Speaker 2: There's no other way for him to you escape threat
25:01
Speaker 2: other than violence.
25:06
Speaker 1: Unaware of his client's killing spree, defense attorney Barry Hazen
25:10
Speaker 1: was making his way to the courthouse to get ready
25:13
Speaker 1: for the nine to fifteen start.
25:15
Speaker 3: As if walking to the courthouse, I heard sirens. Maybe
25:18
Speaker 3: four or five seconds after I heard them, these cars
25:21
Speaker 3: were whizzing past me. Police corps whizzing passing me to
25:25
Speaker 3: the courthouse, and then I saw deputies pouring out of
25:30
Speaker 3: the courthouse from different exits, guns drawn, and I knew,
25:36
Speaker 3: I just knew that it had to involve Brian. One
25:41
Speaker 3: of the deputies who I know, came running up the
25:43
Speaker 3: street and shoved me into a storefront and said, you're
25:47
Speaker 3: in danger. Your client is just shot Judge Barnes. I
25:50
Speaker 3: was concerned because he was now out. I then called
25:54
Speaker 3: my wife and told her to get our daughter out
25:56
Speaker 3: of school and do not go home. If he was
25:59
Speaker 3: looking for a van. I don't know how he felt
26:01
Speaker 3: about me, but it was a pretty tense, tense time.
26:04
Speaker 3: I mean, we didn't know where he was or what
26:06
Speaker 3: he might took.
26:13
Speaker 1: Intent on evading justice, Nichols turned his attention to getting
26:17
Speaker 1: out of Atlanta.
26:19
Speaker 8: In two thousand and five, I was working at the
26:21
Speaker 8: Atlanta Journal Constitution. I was a featured reporter and it
26:26
Speaker 8: was a good job. I parked in the usual spot
26:29
Speaker 8: always parked, and I usually got there around nine thirty
26:33
Speaker 8: or so. I didn't have the radio on, so I
26:36
Speaker 8: didn't hear any news was what was going on. It
26:40
Speaker 8: just seemed like another ordinary day. So I walked my
26:45
Speaker 8: car and was about to leave when the SUV pulled
26:48
Speaker 8: in Miss iv nice looking black man with no shirt,
26:53
Speaker 8: said do you know how to get to Linux Square,
26:56
Speaker 8: which is a local shopping mall. Being told light, I
27:00
Speaker 8: started giving him direction. He got out of the car
27:04
Speaker 8: and walked around. I didn't think anything about it until
27:08
Speaker 8: he pulled the gun.
27:11
Speaker 1: Dawn was the fourth person Nichols had confronted since escaping.
27:15
Speaker 1: He was completely unaware the man holding the gun was
27:19
Speaker 1: a multiple murderer.
27:23
Speaker 8: When he said give me your keys, and I said
27:25
Speaker 8: to myself, since the car jacking, it's just stay calm,
27:30
Speaker 8: give him the keys and he'll drive off. And that
27:33
Speaker 8: set But then when he took my keys and unlocked
27:36
Speaker 8: trunk he told me to get in, I knew this
27:39
Speaker 8: was serious business. He was giving orders like a drill instructor.
27:47
Speaker 8: He was not eratic, he was amazingly calm. He was
27:53
Speaker 8: just upset that I wouldn't follow his directions. We kind
27:56
Speaker 8: of stared at each other for a few minutes, and
27:59
Speaker 8: he said, get in the trunk.
28:01
Speaker 6: I'll kid you.
28:02
Speaker 8: I shook my head and he kept kept closer and
28:06
Speaker 8: glared at me, and he said get in the trunk,
28:09
Speaker 8: I'll shoot you. And after I refused to get into
28:18
Speaker 8: the trunk, he ended up hitting me over my eye
28:22
Speaker 8: and I fell, and then I scrambled to my feet
28:25
Speaker 8: and ran out this way.
28:30
Speaker 6: This was the most terrifying thing that ever happened.
28:33
Speaker 8: I never had a gun pointed at me, I'd never
28:36
Speaker 8: been threatened, but I think I was reasonably calm considering
28:41
Speaker 8: the situation. And I went two blocks up that way
28:45
Speaker 8: and ran into a fellow reporter and he told me
28:49
Speaker 8: they'd been a shooting at the courthouse. The judge had
28:52
Speaker 8: been killed, two other people shot, and he said, sounds
28:55
Speaker 8: like the same guy.
28:57
Speaker 9: And he said there were police for down a block
28:59
Speaker 9: interview people. And so I went there, told me when
29:03
Speaker 9: had happened, despite my green Honda that he had taken.
29:07
Speaker 9: And then I went to the medical center to get my.
29:11
Speaker 3: Wrists fixed and my eyes stitched.
29:14
Speaker 9: And that was my.
29:16
Speaker 3: Morning so far.
29:18
Speaker 1: While law enforcement were desperately trying to locate Nichols, the
29:22
Speaker 1: scene at Fulton County Courthouse was one of devastation.
29:28
Speaker 6: It still affects me up to this day. It's hard
29:34
Speaker 6: to talk about it.
29:38
Speaker 4: Judge Byrne was the only judge.
29:41
Speaker 6: He was my friend.
29:44
Speaker 4: Julie was special. She was really time. Julie made sure
29:52
Speaker 4: that the jury how to cake every morning. She was
29:56
Speaker 4: really really.
29:57
Speaker 3: Nice Julie Brandeu. She was warm and wonderful and friendly.
30:05
Speaker 3: It went with Judge Barnes. His chambers was a place
30:08
Speaker 3: of if you had some time between cases and you
30:11
Speaker 3: wanted to hang out somewhere, you can go there and
30:14
Speaker 3: just sit there and eat popcorn, have a cup of coffee.
30:17
Speaker 3: He didn't have a walk on the store all the
30:19
Speaker 3: other thing judges did. His was wide open, and Julie
30:22
Speaker 3: Brandew had that others did also. She was just this
30:27
Speaker 3: really nice person.
30:33
Speaker 1: As Atlanta Police Department took over the crime scene, officers
30:37
Speaker 1: had no idea where Nichols was and offered a substantial
30:41
Speaker 1: reward for information.
30:44
Speaker 8: Whether he had done was to drive my car at
30:47
Speaker 8: one level, backed it into the parking space, taken my
30:52
Speaker 8: navy blazer out of the car and put it on,
30:55
Speaker 8: walked across to the Martyr. The mass transit system took
31:00
Speaker 8: the train to Lenox Square.
31:04
Speaker 1: With Nichols now the focus of one of the biggest
31:06
Speaker 1: manhunts America had ever seen, police were unaware he was
31:11
Speaker 1: just seven miles away in the streets around the Lenox
31:14
Speaker 1: Square shopping mall. Thirteen hours on from his first kill,
31:19
Speaker 1: he was about to take another innocent life.
31:27
Speaker 8: He was looking for a place to hide or whatever,
31:31
Speaker 8: and there was a house with a door open, and
31:33
Speaker 8: there was a federal agent and they are working on
31:36
Speaker 8: his bathroom.
31:37
Speaker 1: The crime spree continued, with Nickels shooting and killing US
31:41
Speaker 1: Customs Agent David Wilhelm at his home. He then steals
31:45
Speaker 1: his pickup truck, badge, and pistol.
31:49
Speaker 3: It was a pretty tense tense time. I mean, we
31:52
Speaker 3: didn't know where he was or what he might do.
31:54
Speaker 3: What we did find out is that he committed a
31:56
Speaker 3: lark another killing that night where he shot the federal Marshall,
32:00
Speaker 3: which is about a half a mile from my house.
32:06
Speaker 1: With the murder of off duty federal agent David Wilhelm
32:09
Speaker 1: freshly in his wake, Nichols headed thirty miles north to
32:13
Speaker 1: Gwinnette County.
32:19
Speaker 3: I was asked to come down to downtown Atlanta. They
32:22
Speaker 3: wanted to film a request for him to turn himself in.
32:26
Speaker 3: And all of a sudden, a driver gets in the
32:29
Speaker 3: van and a reporter gets in the van and we
32:31
Speaker 3: take off and he says, oh, he's in Gwinnette County.
32:33
Speaker 3: I'm just sitting in his van. At this point in time,
32:36
Speaker 3: I'm like prisoner.
32:47
Speaker 1: At around two a m Ashley Smith was unpacking her
32:50
Speaker 1: new apartment when she headed out briefly to buy cigarettes.
32:54
Speaker 1: On her return, Nichols was waiting in the shadows a
33:00
Speaker 1: gun to her back. He forced his way into her apartment.
33:04
Speaker 3: He forces his way into a gorunette woman's apartment. A
33:07
Speaker 3: swap team surrounds.
33:08
Speaker 1: Nichols, having killed four innocent people in a murderous rampage.
33:21
Speaker 1: Alleged rapist Brian Nichols was on the run. He had
33:25
Speaker 1: reached a town thirty miles north of downtown Atlanta.
33:31
Speaker 2: A lot of people high on psychopathy actually tend to
33:33
Speaker 2: be very impulsive and not engage in long term thinking,
33:37
Speaker 2: and those four people were in his way, and so
33:39
Speaker 2: it was a means to an end.
33:41
Speaker 1: Nichols was aware the police were on his trail and
33:44
Speaker 1: had taken a hostage single mom, Ashley Smith. Ashley Smith
33:50
Speaker 1: had managed to stay alive by gaining the trust of Nichols,
33:54
Speaker 1: spending the night talking about God and forgiveness.
33:59
Speaker 3: They believe there is a hostage situation going on right now.
34:02
Speaker 3: This is in Duluth, Georgia. It's about fifteen miles north
34:05
Speaker 3: of the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta. Where we know
34:08
Speaker 3: three people were killed yesterday.
34:10
Speaker 1: Ashley had made Nichols breakfast and encouraged the killer to
34:14
Speaker 1: turn himself in. He refused. At around nine to fifteen am,
34:18
Speaker 1: Ashley managed to persuade Nichols to let her go and
34:21
Speaker 1: see her daughter. As soon as she was in the car,
34:26
Speaker 1: she dialed nine one one at least quickly surrounded the area.
34:31
Speaker 3: We're about maybe one hundred and fifty feet from where
34:35
Speaker 3: he was, perhaps, and this apartment was surrounded, and I thought,
34:38
Speaker 3: if he doesn't come out, they're gonna kill him. But
34:41
Speaker 3: fortunately he waved a white shirt and then they swamped
34:44
Speaker 3: him and he was just covered. You couldn't even see
34:46
Speaker 3: him at that point in time. He did ask for
34:49
Speaker 3: me to come talk to him. I decline. My attitude
34:53
Speaker 3: was that I represented him on a rape case. I
34:56
Speaker 3: was not representing him on a murder case, especially given
34:59
Speaker 3: the fact that I knew the people who had killed
35:03
Speaker 3: and then George Barnson, who really brand down and there's
35:06
Speaker 3: no way I.
35:07
Speaker 10: Can do that.
35:08
Speaker 1: As the city of Atlanta emerged from a twenty six
35:12
Speaker 1: hour lockdown, Ryan Nichols was securely locked away once again
35:16
Speaker 1: at Fulton County Jail.
35:20
Speaker 7: When a person commits a crime out on the streets,
35:22
Speaker 7: they get arrested, they go to the police department to
35:24
Speaker 7: get processed, and then they'll go to county jail.
35:28
Speaker 6: That's where they'll take away their.
35:30
Speaker 7: Belongings, dress them out and inmate attire, and fingerprint them,
35:34
Speaker 7: book them, and they wait there until they get scheduled
35:38
Speaker 7: to go to prison.
35:42
Speaker 1: Just under two months later, Nichols was indicted by a
35:45
Speaker 1: Fulton County grand jury on fifty four counts. Citing mental
35:51
Speaker 1: health issues. Nichols pleaded not guilty.
35:55
Speaker 2: He may have planned these murders in order to get
35:57
Speaker 2: the death penalty, it seems more like his goal was
36:00
Speaker 2: just to escape the courthouse, just to escape prison and
36:04
Speaker 2: not think much about the future.
36:11
Speaker 1: While awaiting trial at Fulton County Jail, Nichols attempted to
36:15
Speaker 1: enlist two sheriff's deputies while plotting an escape.
36:21
Speaker 7: It is safe to assume that every inmate wants to
36:25
Speaker 7: escape from prison. I would say some personality traits of
36:30
Speaker 7: somebody attempting to escape or wanting to escape would be
36:33
Speaker 7: maybe growing out their hair one day or cutting into
36:36
Speaker 7: the next to be able to disguise themselves as they
36:38
Speaker 7: attempt to flee. Getting physically fit so that they are
36:42
Speaker 7: able to run or walk multiple miles, learning the layout
36:48
Speaker 7: of the surrounding areas in towns, maybe acquiring a map,
36:51
Speaker 7: a compass, a cell phone to.
36:52
Speaker 6: Aid them in an escape.
36:54
Speaker 7: Those are the type of ones that are kind of
36:55
Speaker 7: smart with it.
36:58
Speaker 1: Deemed a high security risk, Nichols was moved to Decob
37:02
Speaker 1: County Jail. He remained here for two years until on
37:10
Speaker 1: July tenth, two thousand and eight, nichols murder trial began.
37:15
Speaker 1: He maintained his plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.
37:20
Speaker 8: Well, it was actually the first time I had been
37:22
Speaker 8: a witness in the trial, especially when I was involved
37:25
Speaker 8: with it, and it was.
37:29
Speaker 6: I was very nervous.
37:31
Speaker 8: They asked me to point him out in the courtroom.
37:35
Speaker 8: That's when I had flashed back because I knew I
37:37
Speaker 8: was going to have to tell the story again. And
37:42
Speaker 8: then image flashed through my mind about everything, and yeah,
37:51
Speaker 8: I don't I wasn't going to be in the same
37:55
Speaker 8: room with him again.
37:58
Speaker 6: Actually broke down.
38:00
Speaker 4: Understand Nicholas was sitting with the attorneys next to him.
38:05
Speaker 6: I kept looking at him.
38:07
Speaker 4: I kept staring at him. I could not help but
38:11
Speaker 4: stare at him. I'm such an evil person. It was
38:16
Speaker 4: hard because of the loss of my friends, Judge and
38:21
Speaker 4: Julie deputies something I would never.
38:27
Speaker 6: Forget. I lived with it for the rest of my life.
38:36
Speaker 1: In an incredible turn of events, it transpired that Nichols
38:39
Speaker 1: had killed the man about to give him his freedom.
38:45
Speaker 3: About six months after the shooting, look at a telephone
38:48
Speaker 3: call from an attorney and told me that the night
38:52
Speaker 3: before the shooting that he had a conversation with Judge
38:55
Speaker 3: Barnes about the case. Judge Barnes told him he was
39:00
Speaker 3: going to cut Brian Nichols free by granting a motion
39:04
Speaker 3: for a directed verdict of a quittle. If the defense
39:07
Speaker 3: thinks there's not enough evidence legally for a jury to
39:12
Speaker 3: even find somebody guilty beyond a reasonable doubt is a
39:15
Speaker 3: legal issue. It's insufficient, you can make a motion for
39:18
Speaker 3: a directed verdict of acquittal. So Brian killed the person
39:23
Speaker 3: that was going to cut him loose. The case would
39:25
Speaker 3: not even gone to the jury. Brian was going to
39:29
Speaker 3: go home.
39:37
Speaker 1: The jury deliberated for twelve hours over two days before
39:41
Speaker 1: finding Nichols guilty of four counts of murder and fifty
39:45
Speaker 1: other charges, sentenced to multiple life sentences with no chance
39:49
Speaker 1: of parole. Nichols was spared the death penalty when the
39:52
Speaker 1: jury failed to reach a unanimous decision.
39:57
Speaker 8: I think two or three people other than guess it.
39:59
Speaker 8: But it all depends on who the jury is. If
40:05
Speaker 8: someone looks and they say it looks like a killer,
40:08
Speaker 8: looks like a horrible person and more likely to do that.
40:11
Speaker 8: But he looked like an ordinary middle class guy. They
40:21
Speaker 8: blamed it on something mental, not the fact that he's
40:24
Speaker 8: with a natural born killer.
40:28
Speaker 4: Yes, I was pretty to diverted because he's got a
40:31
Speaker 4: long time to think. He was given over two hundred years,
40:38
Speaker 4: I think, and brand in prison is worse than the death. Finally,
40:42
Speaker 4: they should.
40:43
Speaker 1: Be sentenced to four consecutive life sentences. Nichols was incarcerated
40:50
Speaker 1: in Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison. With a history
40:57
Speaker 1: of escape attempts and plots, Nichols means a high security
41:01
Speaker 1: risk to those guarding him.
41:04
Speaker 3: My under setting is they move him from place to pace.
41:07
Speaker 3: They do not let the same guards guarden him for
41:09
Speaker 3: a prolonged period of time because they don't want them
41:13
Speaker 3: to get too comfortable with him that they know. They
41:17
Speaker 3: move him around, different people interact with him, because he's
41:21
Speaker 3: considered to be a high security risk, and I believe
41:23
Speaker 3: he is. I think if he felt cornered, I think
41:26
Speaker 3: he would very possibly kill again.
41:29
Speaker 4: Brannick is the person you cannot Trust's a woven sheep clothing.
41:36
Speaker 1: Nichol's rap sheet, which features the death of so many
41:39
Speaker 1: law enforcement officials, has given him kudos with other prisoners.
41:45
Speaker 7: Reputation in prison is pretty much everything. So if a
41:49
Speaker 7: suspect committed a crime out on the streets, would it
41:52
Speaker 7: carry over the reputation inside of prison? That all depends
41:55
Speaker 7: on the notoriety did it make the news? Was a
41:58
Speaker 7: person that the crime was committed against? Was it a
42:01
Speaker 7: police officer? So depending on who the victim was and
42:05
Speaker 7: the circumstances of the crime, absolutely that reputa can carry
42:08
Speaker 7: inside the prison.
42:13
Speaker 3: My guess is he's probably got a bit of notoriety
42:16
Speaker 3: there in the prison population. If you don't have much
42:19
Speaker 3: in prison, you try to garner what will you do
42:22
Speaker 3: have he'll die there unless he, you know, escapes.
42:26
Speaker 1: One thing remains clear to all involved in this case.
42:30
Speaker 1: Brian Nichols is still one of the world's most evil prisoners.
42:36
Speaker 4: The impact of what he had done, he had taken
42:41
Speaker 4: a judge everyone liked.
42:43
Speaker 6: He took a court reporter, a beautiful person. He took
42:47
Speaker 6: a deputy life. A deputy will be there for you anytime.
42:54
Speaker 4: He impacts so many people's lives, all the families of
42:58
Speaker 4: the victims. No one would never be the Saint