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| S P E C I A L | The Terry Nichols Trial |
Nichols defense tries to discredit star witness
December 8, 1997
Fortier (left) and Nichols
Web posted at: 11:36 p.m. EST (0436 GMT)In this story:
- Expert: Drug Fortier used causes memory gaps
- Shop owner said he hired John Doe No. 2
- Sources: Nichols' wife will testify
DENVER (CNN) -- Terry Nichols' lawyers attacked the credibility of the prosecution's star witness in the Oklahoma City bombing trial on Monday, bringing to the stand a doctor who testified that a drug Michael Fortier admits abusing causes memory blackouts and paranoia.
The defense also tried to raise the possibility that Timothy McVeigh had a mysterious accomplice, calling to the stand the owner of an Oklahoma waffle shop who testified about "John Doe No. 2."
A L S O :
Nichols trial transcripts
Fortier earlier testified that Nichols was present when convicted bomber Timothy McVeigh took Fortier to a storage shed containing explosives. Fortier has admitted using the illegal drug methamphetamine regularly.
Expert: Drug Fortier used causes memory gaps
Dr. Michael Abrams, a drug expert from the Broadlawns Medical Center in Des Moines, Iowa, testified that sustained use of methamphetamine causes users to become suspicious and to suffer mood swings.
"People get hyper," he said. "They feel they're being followed. They're open to suggestion to fill in the gaps."
Abrams, who has worked with jail inmates who abuse drugs, also said sustained use of methamphetamine kills parts of the brain, leaving gaps in memory similar to alcoholic blackouts. Users can even reach a point where they kill themselves, "or they kill other people," he said.
Nichols' defense team contends that Fortier's testimony cannot be trusted because of his drug use.
Fortier testified that McVeigh took him to a storage shed outside Kingman, Arizona, before the April 1995 bombing that killed 168 people. He said Nichols was there, loading something onto a truck.
Fortier said McVeigh told him about his plan to bomb the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building to avenge the 1993 government siege at Waco, Texas. Fortier also testified that McVeigh told him someone else was in on the plan.
Shop owner said he hired John Doe No. 2
In other testimony Monday, Darvin Bates, the owner of a waffle shop in a small town 75 miles south of Oklahoma City, testified that he hired a man he is convinced was John Doe No. 2 about a month before the bombing.
John Doe No. 2 is the name given a man shown in an FBI sketch who was an early focus of the manhunt for suspects in the bombing. Prosecutors now say he was not involved in the bomb plot, but the defense contends McVeigh's accomplice was John Doe No. 2 -- and not Nichols.
Bates, who will return to the stand on Tuesday, said he had an "uneasy" feeling about the man, who he thought could have been from the Philippines and who said to call him "John" because his full name was hard to pronounce. Bates said the man told him he was from Kingman, Arizona.
That is where Fortier lived, and where McVeigh lived for part of the time the government said he was plotting the bomb attack. Other witnesses have testified to seeing a man fitting John Doe No. 2's description with McVeigh at various times.
Sources: Nichols' wife will testify
Other testimony on Monday came from former co-workers of McVeigh who told of receiving anti-government literature from him. One woman said McVeigh offered his services in case she needed anyone killed or blown up. The defense was trying to show that McVeigh distributed the literature to many people other than Nichols.
Sources said that Nichols' wife, Marife, will testify before the defense rests its case but that it still has not been decided if Nichols' 15-year-old son, Josh, will be called to testify.
Josh Nichols, who visited his father in Kansas just days before the bombing, would likely testify that he did not see any white plastic barrels at his father's home when he was there. The FBI seized white barrels of the kind used to mix bomb materials from Nichols' house.
Nichols, 42, could receive the death penalty if convicted of murder and conspiracy in the bombing. McVeigh, 29, was convicted of identical charges in June and sentenced to die.
Correspondent Tony Clark and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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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