Witness: McVeigh described plans to bomb federal building

April 29, 1997
Web posted at: 11:00 p.m. EDT

In this story:

Fortier: McVeigh described 'an easy target'
'I thought that he wasn't capable of it'
Witness says McVeigh forged driver's license
Jurors see twisted truck axle

DENVER (CNN) -- Incensed over the federal assault at Waco, Timothy McVeigh meticulously plotted retaliation, and used soup cans to demonstrate his plan to bomb the Oklahoma City federal building, a witness testified Tuesday.

"One day, Tim went to the cupboard and got a bunch of soup cans out," said Lori Fortier, wife of McVeigh's army buddy, Michael Fortier. They were in the Fortier's trailer in Kingman, Arizona.

"He placed the cans on the floor in the same arrangement he was going to arrange the barrels in the truck, in a triangle ... with the biggest part of the triangle facing the building. He said that it would get the most impact that way."

Testifying with immunity from prosecution, Fortier said McVeigh talked frequently about his anger over the FBI's assault on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, and he believed "the government had murdered the people."

The raid during which Branch Davidian cult leader David Koresh and about 80 followers died in flames occurred April 19, 1993 -- exactly two years before the bombing in Oklahoma City.

Once, McVeigh wrote a letter saying he "wanted to take action against the government," Lori Fortier said.

A couple weeks after the soup-can incident, during a visit to the Fortiers' trailer in Kingman, Arizona, she testified that McVeigh "told us what he meant by take action was to blow up a building, a federal building."

McVeigh is accused of setting off the huge truck bomb that destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah building on April 19, 1995, killing 168 people.

Fortier: McVeigh described 'an easy target'

"Tim specified the building he was planning on bombing was the Oklahoma City building ... He said it was a U-shaped building with a glass front" and he described it as "an easy target," Fortier testified.

She also quoted McVeigh as saying he intended to rent a truck to carry the bomb, which he planned to make with racing fuel and ammonium nitrate inside barrels in the truck. Prosecutors contend McVeigh rented a Ryder truck to transport the bomb.

Michael Fortier also is expected to be a key witness for the prosecution. He has admitted in a plea agreement with the government that he knew about McVeigh's alleged plans and did nothing to stop him. He faces a maximum 23-year sentence.

McVeigh, 29, faces the death penalty if convicted. His Army pal Terry Nichols also is charged in the blast, and will be tried separately at a later date.

'I thought that he wasn't capable of it'

Dressed in a conservative charcoal gray suit with a black velvet collar, Lori Fortier spoke in a calm voice about her family's close relationship with the defendant.

She met McVeigh over Thanksgiving weekend in 1988. He was the best man at the Fortiers' wedding, stayed with them often in their mobile home and lived for a while in the Kingman area.

As she testified in the packed courtroom, McVeigh mostly leaned back in his chair, a dispassionate expression on his face. But he leaned forward as she described a system of codes she said McVeigh had arranged to alert them by telephone of any danger.

"Code orange" meant he "might" be in trouble, "code green" meant everything was okay, and "code red" meant "I'm in serious trouble," Fortier said. In 1994, before the blast, he once called with a "code orange," she added.

As soon as she heard news reports of the explosion on the morning of April 19, she said she "knew right away that it was Tim."

When asked why she didn't move to stop McVeigh's plot, Fortier broke down in tears. "I guess on some level Tim was my friend, and I thought that he wasn't capable of it at that time."

Witness says McVeigh forged driver's license

She returns Wednesday for what promises to be a brutal cross-examination. Fortier admitted Tuesday on direct questioning that she was a regular drug user until she became a government witness.

She said she used speed, or methamphetamines, weekly and also smoked marijuana regularly in 1995. And she experimented with acid and mushrooms, she told jurors.

Defense attorneys likely will focus on Fortier's admission that in the weeks after the bombing, she lied to the FBI, friends and relatives. "I didn't want (authorities) to implicate us. I was scared," she said.

In February 1995, Fortier said McVeigh asked to borrow her iron to laminate a fake driver's license in the name of Robert Kling. She said they joked about it, and she called McVeigh "a Klingon," based on the "Star Trek" series.

She said he discussed the plot again around that time, saying "he was upset that Terry [Nichols] wanted out, and Terry didn't want to mix the bomb, and he wanted Michael to help him."

Michael Fortier refused, and also refused to pick McVeigh up in Las Vegas, where he planned to flee after the explosion, she said.

Jurors see twisted truck axle

Lori Fortier's testimony capped a day in which the prosecution presented some of its strongest evidence against McVeigh, including showing the axle they say links McVeigh to the Ryder truck.

The 7-foot-tall mass of jagged and twisted black metal, draped in a black cloth, was wheeled in front of the jury box on a red hand cart and then uncovered. The explosion threw it 575 feet from the federal building, FBI agent James Elliott testified.

A vehicle identification number was stamped into the metal of the axle, which was found the day of the bombing. The truck's ignition key and its blackened, damaged rear license plate, issued in Florida, were also discovered in the wreckage, Elliott said.

Ryder truck executive Clark Anderson said the axle number was traced to a 20-foot Ryder truck that had been rented on April 17, 1995 -- two days before the bombing -- from Elliott's Body Shop in Junction City, Kansas, to a man who gave the name Bob Kling.

Prosecutors said they will call the body shop's owner to identify McVeigh as the man who rented the truck using the Kling driver's license.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

T R A N S C R I P T S / O V E R V I E W / T H E P L A Y E R S
T H E B O M B I N G / C N N S T O R I E S / L I N K S

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