Mahaz News
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Here’s some background details about Brian Nichols and the Atlanta courthouse shootings. On March 11, 2005, 33-year-old Nichols escaped from the Fulton County Courthouse whereas on trial for rape, and killed 4 folks.
Birth date: December 10, 1971
Birth place: Baltimore, Maryland
Birth title: Brian Gene Nichols
Children: with Sonya Meredith: a son, March 8, 2005; with Stephanie Jay: Jasmine Jay, 1992
Judge Rowland Barnes, 64, Fulton County Superior Court Judge
Julie Brandau, 46, courtroom reporter
Hoyt Teasley, 43, sheriff’s deputy
David Wilhelm, 40, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent
1995 – Moves to Atlanta along with his household.
1996-1999 – Is on probation from 1996 to 1999 for a felony drug case in Cobb County, Georgia. He is arrested with a small quantity of marijuana.
Summer 2004 – Is charged with the rape of his former girlfriend.
8:45 a.m. – While being escorted to his retrial for the rape and different expenses, Nichols assaults a sheriff’s deputy when she removes his handcuffs, in a battle that lasts about three minutes and is caught on surveillance video. He takes the important thing to a lock field the place her gun is saved.
Nichols retrieves the gun, modifications garments and crosses a sky bridge into the subsequent constructing and heads for the courtroom.
Nichols then goes to Judge Rowland Barnes’ non-public chambers, tears out the telephone strains, takes three hostages and asks in regards to the choose’s whereabouts. He leaves various occasions, lastly returning with one other deputy taken hostage.
8:55 a.m. – Seizes the second deputy’s gun and enters the courtroom from behind the bench, fires a single shot into Barnes’ head, then shoots and kills courtroom reporter Julie Brandau.
Nichols goes down the stairwell, leaves by means of an emergency exit and units off an emergency alarm.
On Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, witnesses say he fires a number of pictures into the stomach of one other sheriff’s deputy, Hoyt Teasley.
9:05 a.m. – Nichols first steals a darkish SUV (2001 Mazda Tribute), drives fewer than three blocks and crashes by means of the gate of one other parking deck.
9:07 a.m. – A tow truck driver, Deronte Franklin, says that after he directs police into the deck, Nichols comes again down and steals his truck at gunpoint.
9:14 a.m. – Nichols then drives to a different deck about six blocks away the place Almeta Kilgo, an worker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, says he stole her 2004 Mercury Sable. She says she escaped after refusing Nichols’ order to remain within the automobile.
9:15 a.m. – Atlanta Police Command employees are notified at APD Communications {that a} Fulton County deputy has been shot.
9:16 a.m. – Nichols carjacks a blue Isuzu Trooper from Sung Chung, at 250 Spring St.
9:19 a.m. – The tow truck (1999 Ford F-350) stolen at 9:07 a.m. is recovered at a parking deck at 98 Cone St.
9:20 a.m. – Nichols drives a pair extra blocks to a different deck, Centennial Parking, 130 Marietta St., the place he steals the automobile of AJC reporter Don O’Briant, a inexperienced 1997 Honda Accord. He says Nichols orders him into the trunk and pistol-whips him when he refuses. O’Briant manages to run away.
9:30 a.m. (approx.) – Police say they consider Nichols moved unnoticed throughout the road by means of a crowd gathering for a school basketball event, making his escape on a MARTA subway prepare to the Lenox space. Officials say nothing about Nichols’ whereabouts for the subsequent 13 hours.
9:45 a.m. – The Atlanta Police Department takes command of the crime scene.
By about 7 p.m. – Authorities announce they’re providing a $60,000 reward for data resulting in Nichols’ seize.
10:40 p.m. – Nichols makes an attempt to rob a pair at an residence on Lenox Road, getting right into a scuffle earlier than fleeing.
Sometime later however lower than 5 minutes away on foot, Nichols encounters US ICE Agent David Wilhelm and he shoots and kills Wilhelm, taking his gun, his badge and his blue Chevrolet pickup.
11 p.m. – An AJC worker finds O’Briant’s inexperienced Honda Accord on a unique stage of the identical downtown parking storage, Centennial Parking.
About 2:30 a.m. – Ashley Smith returns from working an errand to her residence in Duluth, about 20 miles northeast of Atlanta. Nichols forces his method into her residence at gunpoint and binds her palms and ft.
Smith says as they spoke for hours about faith and household, Nichols started to calm down, and finally unbound her palms and ft.
After 6 a.m. – Smith says she adopted Nichols so he may disguise the truck after which took him again to the residence in her automobile. She says that Nichols didn’t take any weapons on the journey, and that she had her cellphone however didn’t name police.
About 6:30 a.m.-7 a.m. – Construction employees arrive at David Wilhelm’s residence, discover his physique and name police, who put out an alert for the blue Chevrolet pickup truck.
Smith says Nichols allowed her to depart to go to her daughter. Nichols provides her cash, saying he was going to remain at her residence for a “few days.”
About 9:50 a.m. – Smith dials 911 and inside minutes, a SWAT group converges on the constructing.
About 11:24 a.m. – Nichols is taken into custody after surrendering by waving a white t-shirt or towel.
READ MORE: Hostage says she gained belief of Atlanta killings suspect
March 15, 2005 – Nichols makes his first courtroom look after being captured.
May 5, 2005 – A Fulton County grand jury indicts Nichols on 54 counts, together with 4 counts of felony homicide. District Attorney Paul Howard says the state will search the demise penalty.
May 17, 2005 – Nichols pleads not responsible to all 54 counts.
September 27, 2005 – Smith’s guide, “Unlikely Angel,” is printed by Zondervan/Harper Collins. The guide recounts the seven hours she spent as Nichols’ hostage.
February 8, 2006 – Superior Court Judge Hilton Fuller guidelines that Nichols’ trial will happen on the Fulton County Courthouse, the scene of among the crimes.
November 9, 2006 – Judge Fuller guidelines that cameras will probably be allowed within the courtroom, although he leaves open the opportunity of some restrictions as soon as the trial begins.
October 15, 2007 – Jury choice begins.
October 17, 2007 – Judge Fuller suspends jury choice indefinitely on account of lack of state funding for the protection.
January 30, 2008 – Judge Fuller proclaims he’s stepping down from the case as a result of notion by many that he’s biased.
July 10, 2008 – The trial resumes and jury choice begins. Nichols pleads not responsible by motive of madness.
September 17, 2008 – A jury of eight girls and 4 males (six black females, two white females, two black males, one white male and one Asian male) is chosen.
September 22, 2008 – Opening statements start.
November 7, 2008 – After 12 hours of deliberation, a jury finds Nichols responsible on all 54 counts. The jurors reject the protection attorneys’ declare that Nichols suffers from psychological sickness.
December 13, 2008 – Superior Court Judge James Bodiford sentences Nichols to life in jail with out parole, the utmost for all counts, a day after the jury deadlocks on a demise penalty sentence.
READ MORE: Jury deadlocked on penalty for Atlanta courthouse shooter
August 18, 2015 – Smith’s guide, “Unlikely Angel,” is printed by HarperCollins/William Morrow as “Captive: The Untold Story of the Atlanta Hostage Hero.”
September 18, 2015 – The movie “Captive” is launched by Paramount Pictures and is an adaption of Smith’s guide. It stars David Oyelowo as Nichols and Kate Mara as Smith.
Source web site: www.cnn.com
