OKLAHOMA CITY, May 5 (UPI) -- The long-delayed preliminary hearing in the state's effort to execute bombing co-conspirator Terry Nichols began Monday, highlighted by his former wife's denial of incriminating statements FBI agents attributed to her.
Nichols, 48, convicted in federal court of conspiracy and the involuntary manslaughter of eight federal agents in the Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995, faces 160 counts of first degree murder and one of manslaughter.
Prosecutors have said they plan to change the manslaughter charge in the death of a fetus to murder, based on a recent decision by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal appeals.
Nichols is accused of plotting with Timothy McVeigh to blow up the building in downtown Oklahoma City, in which 168 people were killed. McVeigh was convicted of first degree murder in a separate federal trial in Denver and was executed June 11, 2001, in Terre Haute, Ind.
Lana Padilla denied or said she could not recall describing her former husband to FBI agents as "secretive and a survivalist," "right wing," "anti-tax and anti-government," "someone who wants to shake up the government" or that she had seen explosives on the Nichols' farm in Michigan.
Lead prosecutor Sandra Elliott read to her statements by the FBI and asked repeatedly, "Are you denying here under oath" that you made these statements?
Padilla answered: "That's correct," or "I don't recall." At one point District Judge Allen McCall advised Padilla she was "being evasive" and asked her "to do better."
She said she had known the names Timothy McVeigh and Michael Fortier as far back as 1988, when Nichols was in the Army with them. Fortier is serving 12 years for not warning anyone of the bombing plot, for lying to FBI agents and for helping McVeigh sell stolen guns.
The Oklahoma County district attorney's office said would present 33 witnesses to provide enough evidence to send Nichols to trial. Last week McCall ruled that the defense could not present witnesses, since it was just a preliminary hearing. That could cut the hearing to two weeks.
Sheryl Pankratz, a courthouse employee in Marion, Kan., testified that Nichols appeared there asking addresses of various elected officials and presenting a document to renounce his U.S. citizenship.
Lee Alexander, former aide to then-U.S. Sen. Nancy Kassebaum in her Topeka, Kan., office, recalled a telephone call from a Nichols on April 17, 1995, complaining about fiery deaths in the Branch Davidian standoff in Waco, Texas, on April 19, 1994, as well about "gun laws and Janet Reno."
Alexander said she was watching television the weekend after the bombing and heard that McVeigh and Nichols had been identified as the perpetrators.
"My first thought was, 'Oh, my God, could that have been the person I was talking to?'"
She said she recalled the name because she had called him Jerry on the phone and he corrected her to say, "It's Terry with a T."
The first witness, Tim Chambers, a former salesman of racetrack fuel, told of selling three 54-gallon drums of nitromethane for $2,775 in cash at a speedway near Dallas on Oct. 21, 1994. He described the buyer as having "sandy colored hair, eyes set close together" a description that might fit McVeigh.
He said it was not Nichols, who sat across the small courtroom wearing a button down blue shirt and sport coat.
Padilla, asked if Nichols was a "house husband" during their marriage, replied, "He was a good one." Although divorced, the couple was seen hugging in the hallway during a break.
Trying Nichols in state court has been highly controversial in Oklahoma because of its expense and its impact on the pinched budget of the judicial system.
The Oklahoma County court fund paid $24.5 million to defense attorneys even before the preliminary hearing began. Oklahoma Supreme Court Chief Justice Joseph Watt authorized the latest payment of $123,000 on April 21.
The Daily Oklahoman reported in a copyright story Sunday that prosecutors and Nichols' attorneys had met secretly twice this year in an effort to settle the state case.
