'You're an angel that God led me to'

'You're an angel that God led me to'
Duluth woman recounts the hours she was held hostage by Brian Nichols

ASHLEY SMITH

By BILL RANKIN, DON PLUMMER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/13/05

Just two days after moving into her Duluth apartment, Ashley Smith is up late unpacking.

At about 2 a.m. Saturday the 26-year-old runs out of cigarettes and heads to a local convenience store to buy a pack

When she returns, she sees a man in a truck was waiting outside her door. She had seen the man earlier but didn't think much of it.

She gets out of her car and shuts the door.

She hears the door on the truck close at about the same time. Fear rises in her.

Holding her key in her hand, she makes her way to her front door. As she slides her key into the lock, she turns to see the man from the truck. She screams. He pokes a gun into her ribs.

"Stop screaming," he demands. "I won't hurt you if you stop screaming."

She fears the worst — that she will be raped and killed.

"Do you know who I am?" he asks.

He is wearing a dark blazer beneath a red ski parka but no shirt. He has a new UGA cap on his head.

She doesn't know him.

He removes the cap, showing his shaved head.

"Now do you know who I am?" he asks again.

She recognizes him. She begins to tremble with fear.

"I won't hurt you," he tells her reassuringly.

He takes her into the bathroom, places her in the tub and sits on a small seat, holding a gun.

He leaves her to check for others in the apartment. When he returns, he tries again to reassure her.

"I don't want to hurt anyone else," he says. Worried that her screams could bring too much attention, he warns her.

"If you scream, the police will come. There will be a hostage situation," he says. "I'll have to kill you and kill myself."

He binds her with masking tape and carries her into the bedroom, where he restrains her with more tape, an electrical cord and some curtains. He makes no sexual advance.

"I just need to relax," he tells her.

He needs a shower and leads her as she hops back to the bathroom. He sits her on the chair and drapes a towel over her head for modesty. He places his his guns on the counter and showers.

Afterward she finds him some fresh clothes — a t-shirt and trousers — and he seems to be calmer.

He unbinds her and they sit in her living room.

"I've had a really long day," he says.

He offers her some faint explanation — maybe his first to account for how he had spent this long day.

"I feel like I'm a warrior — that people of my color have gone through a lot."

But he says he's had enough. "I don't want to hurt anybody anymore," he tells her. "I don't want to kill anybody.

"I want to rest."

The tenor of the moment becomes more normal, as normal as it could be.

Smith asks if he would mind if she reads.

Nichols says OK. She gets the book she'd been reading, "A Purpose Driven Life." It is a book that offers daily guidance. She picks up where she left off - the first paragraph of the 33rd chapter.

"We serve God by serving others. The world defines greatness in terms of power, posessions, prestige and position. If you can demand service from others you've arrived. In our self-serving culture with its me first mentality, acting like a servant is not a popular concept."

They talk and lose track of time. They look at her family photos. "Who's this?" he asks, pointing to a picture. "Who's this?"

She talks about her family. Her husband died in her arms four years ago after he had been stabbed in a knife fight in Augusta, her hometown. She has a 5-year-old daughter.

She asks him not to kill her because that would leave her daughter without a mother or a father.

She tells him she is supposed to meet her daughter Saturday morning at about 10 a.m. at Hebron Baptist Church in Dacula. She hadn't seen her in two weeks. "She's expecting to see me," she tells him. "She's already been through a lot in her life."

Smith shows Nichols her late husband's autopsy report.

"That's what a lot of people will have to go through now, because of what you've done," she tells him. "You need to turn yourself in. No one else needs to die and you're going to die if you don't."

Smith asks Nichols how he feels about what he did. She asks him to think of the families of the victims.

She senses a change. "He wasn't a warrior anymore," she recalled later.

"You can go in there right now, pick up that gun and kill me," he tells her. "I'd rather you do it than the police."

He talks about his mother in Africa and wonders what she must be thinking about her son.

They sit watching the TV news of the shooting spree. The screen fills with the story of his attack on Cynthia Hall, the 51-year-old deputy had overpowered Friday morning to begin his rampage.

"I didn't shoot her," Nichols interjects. "I hit her really hard. Lord, I'm sorry. . . . I hope she lives."

He sees himself on the broadcast. "I can't believe that's me," he says.

Nichols later pulls out the badge and driver's license of David Wilhelm, the U.S. Customs Agent he had killed hours before. He hands them to Smith.

Smith looks at the license and tells Nichols that Wilhelm was 40 years old. "He probably has a wife and kids," she says.

"I didn't want to kill him," Nichols says. "He wouldn't do what I asked him to do. He fought me, so I had to kill him."

As the night wears on, Smith begins to feel her chances improve.

Nichols tells her he will let her go see her daughter later in the morning.

At around 6:15 a.m., Nichols says he needs to move the truck he had stolen from Wilhelm from in front of the apartment before the sunrise.

Smith agrees to follow him in her car. He leaves the guns under her bed.

As they drive, Smith thinks about calling 911 on her cellphone, but she decides against it. She fears police will come and surround them. There'd be a shootout.

Nichols ditches the truck off Buford Highway, about two miles from the apartment complex.

"Wow, you didn't drive off," Nichols says as he gets into her car. "I thought you were going to."

She drives him back to her apartment. She no longer doubts that she will be set free.

Back at the apartment, Nichols is hungry. She cooks him eggs and pancakes, gives him fruit juice. They have breakfast together.

Nichols asks when she needed to see her daughter. At 10 a.m., Smith responds. It'd be good if she could leave at 9:30 to get there.

Smith washes the dishes and gets ready to leave.

Nichols asks her to come visit him in jail. "You're an angel that God led me to," he tells her. "I want to talk to you again. Will you come see me?"

She told him she would.

"I'll be back in a little while," she tells him as she prepares to leave.

Nichols gives her an odd look that leads Smith to doubt whether he believes her.

At the door, he hands her $40. Smith says she doesn't need it.

"Take it," Nichols says. "I don't have any need for it."

Nichols holds a tool from Wilhelm's truck and asks if he can hang some pictures or some curtains.

Smith tells him to do whatever he likes.

As she walks out of the apartment in the bright, warm daylight, Smith begins to shake all over. She drives to a stop sign and dials 911. She tells the dispatcher that Nichols is in her apartment.

Within minutes, a Gwinnett police SWAT team swarms outside Smith's apartment. Nichols holds out a white piece of cloth and surrenders.

Sunday night, after recounting her time with Nichols, Smith says she has found some purpose to his finding her.

"I believe God brought him to my door so he couldn't hurt anyone else," she says.

=======================

Chief: Hostage in Atlanta killings 'a champ'
Suspect in court as soon as Monday

Sunday, March 13, 2005 Posted: 9:27 PM EST (0227 GMT)

Atlanta courthouse killings suspect Brian Nichols, front, is taken into custody Saturday.
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ON CNN TV
In a special two-hour show at 9 p.m. ET, "Larry King Live" takes an in-depth look at the case against Atlanta courtroom killings suspect Brian Nichols.
VIDEO
A woman's 911 call led to Nichols' capture.
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Friends and family of the suspect react to allegations.
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Fugitive Brian Nichols is captured in suburb of Atlanta.
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Gallery: Saturday's events
• Timeline: Chronology of the case
• Relatives of suspect stunned
• Lawyers: Court security extensive
• Slain judge inspired others
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ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A Georgia woman spoke of her 5-year-old daughter in a bid to win the sympathy of Brian Nichols while she was held hostage by the suspect in four killings in Atlanta, police sources told CNN

"She was a champ," said Chief Charles Walters of Gwinnett County police.

Nichols apparently saw the woman at a convenience store where she went to buy cigarettes about 2:30 a.m. Saturday, police said.

He was sitting at the store in a truck police say he stole from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent David Wilhelm after shooting Wilhelm to death in the Buckhead area, about 8 miles north of downtown Atlanta.

Authorities had launched an extensive manhunt for Nichols, a defendant in a rape trial, after he allegedly killed a judge, a sheriff's deputy and court reporter before escaping from a courthouse in downtown Atlanta about 9 a.m. Friday.

About 17 hours later, Nichols, 33, followed the woman back to her apartment complex in Duluth, a suburb about 20 miles northeast of Buckhead, and forced his way in while she was entering her home, tying her up and threatening her life, police said.

Police have released few details about the woman. Walters called it a "stranger-on-stranger incident," though police said Nichols told her who he was.

"He told her, 'If you do what I say, I won't kill you,'" said Vernon Keenan, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The woman established a relationship with Nichols "to survive," he said.

Nichols confiscated the woman's cell phone, police said, telling her he had her friends' names and phone numbers, and threatening them as well.

She eventually was able to untie herself, and, over the hours, spoke to Nichols about her daughter, saying the child would be orphaned if anything happened to her, police sources told CNN. The child was not at the apartment during the incident.

Law enforcement sources told CNN that Nichols forced her to follow him about two miles so he could dump Wilhelm's truck, then take him back to the apartment in her car.

The woman established a rapport with Nichols, and she was eventually able to leave the apartment, police said. She dialed 911 from the complex's leasing office about 9:50 a.m., law enforcement sources said.

A police source told CNN the woman said Nichols had three weapons.

The Gwinnett County police officer who was the first to arrive, Anthony Bassett, said the woman told police Nichols allowed her to leave.

Police described her as calm and collected when she called.

"She handled it very responsibly," Walters said.

After a SWAT team surrounded the building at the Bridgewater Apartments, Nichols surrendered. He was taken into custody about 11:24 a.m.

"He literally waved a white flag, or a T-shirt, and came out," Walters said.

"I think he saw the mass response on the media, and he made a very wise decision," said Maj. Bart Hulsey, commander of the Gwinnett County SWAT team.

Police were still investigating Nichols' actions during the hours the woman was held hostage. A search warrant was executed late Saturday at the woman's apartment, using drug-sniffing dogs.

A $60,000 reward had been posted for Nichols' capture. Authorities said Saturday they did not yet know if the woman would be eligible for that money.

Wilhelm's truck was found nearby. Authorities also recovered Wilhelm's badge and a gun thought to be his, and were checking its serial number, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman said.
Federal and state charges

Nichols will not appear in court until at least Monday, the U.S. Attorney's Office for northern Georgia said.

Spokesman Patrick Crosby said in a recorded message that it could be Tuesday before Nichols faces a judge.

Nichols will face federal and state charges, law enforcement officials said Saturday afternoon.

Authorities said he will remain in federal custody, but would not disclose where he would be held. Sources, however, told CNN that Nichols would be held in maximum security at the federal penitentiary in Atlanta.

U.S. Attorney David Nahmias said his office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had filed a federal criminal complaint against Nichols, charging him with possession of a firearm by a person under indictment.

"This is essentially a holding charge that will ensure Mr. Nichols' detention while we sort out additional federal and state charges," Nahmias said.

Police said Nichols fatally shot Fulton County Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes, court reporter Julie Ann Brandau and sheriff's deputy Sgt. Hoyt Teasley on Friday morning, after overpowering deputy Cynthia Ann Hall.

Nichols took Hall's pistol while she was escorting him from a detention area, police said. He shot Hall and then went to Barnes' courtroom where he shot and killed the judge and court reporter, police said.

Hall was in critical condition Saturday at an Atlanta hospital and is expected to survive.
Suspect escaped on mass transit

For most of the day of the courthouse shootings, authorities in Georgia and surrounding states searched for a 1997 green Honda Accord that police say Nichols stole from an Atlanta newspaper reporter in a downtown parking garage.

The car was found late Friday night in the same garage, on a level below the spot where police say Nichols took it. He had allegedly hit the reporter over the head with a pistol.

Security camera images taken Friday morning inside a stairwell in the parking deck showed a shirtless Nichols putting on a jacket, allegedly taken from the reporter, as he went to a lower level and disappeared.

The parking deck is about a five-minute walk from two subway stations.

Atlanta police Chief Richard Pennington said Nichols took a MARTA subway train north. At about 10:40 p.m. Friday, Nichols tried to rob two tourists near a subway station in northern Atlanta's popular Buckhead neighborhood, Pennington said.

Nichols struck one of the tourists in the face and fled, Pennington said.

Police said Nichols then went to Wilhelm's home, not far south of the MARTA station.

Wilhelm, 40, was working alone on his home, which was under construction, at the time of his slaying, said Kenneth Smith, special agent in charge of the Atlanta immigration and customs office.

Authorities said they were still interviewing Nichols and they had not determined whether Nichols knew Wilhelm was an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.

Nichols could be charged with a federal crime only if authorities believe he knew Wilhelm was a federal agent before Wilhelm was killed, law enforcement sources said.

Friday, Nichols was being retried on rape, false imprisonment and other charges after a first trial ended in a hung jury the week before.

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said he planned to try that case to its conclusion.

CNN's Tony Harris, Drew Griffin, KC Wildmoon, Mike Ahlers, Matt Sloane, Kathleen Johnston, Jeanne Meserve, Susan Candiotti, Mike Heard, Kimberly Osias and Mike Brooks contributed to this report.