Terry Nichols

Early life Nichols was born in Lapeer, Michigan. He was raised on a farm, has stated that Terry was book smart and good at artwork. and was sometimes called "grandpa" by the other men. However, he was soon made the platoon guide because of his age. They shared political views

Nichols's wife filed for divorce soon after he joined the Army. Due to a conflict over childcare, Nichols and Torres divorced after his arrest. Marife returned to the Philippines with the children. Torres, his ex wife, also helped foster his anti-government views as some Filipinos, especially Filipino Americans, held anti-government views due to their history with colonialism. Neighbors said he attended meetings of anti-government groups, experimented with explosives and got more radical as time went on. In February 1992, he attempted to renounce his US citizenship by writing to the local county clerk in Michigan, stating that the political system was corrupt, and declaring himself a "non resident alien". For the next three years, McVeigh stayed with Nichols off and on. On April 19, 1993, Nichols was watching TV with McVeigh at the Nichols' farmhouse in Michigan during the siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. When the compound went up in flames, McVeigh and Nichols were enraged and began to plot revenge on the federal government.

Prosecutions

Federal case

McVeigh was tried before Nichols and sentenced to death. The trial lasted nine weeks with the prosecution calling 100 witnesses tying Nichols to McVeigh and the bombing plot. The prosecution argued that Nichols helped McVeigh purchase and steal bomb ingredients, park the getaway car near the Murrah building and assemble the bomb. The defense attempted to cast doubt on the case against Nichols by calling witnesses who said they saw other men with McVeigh before the bombing and by claiming the government had manipulated the evidence against Nichols. They acquitted Nichols on the charges of first degree (premeditated) murder, but convicted him on the lesser charge of involuntary (unintentional) manslaughter in the deaths of the federal law enforcement officers. Nichols also received a concurrent 48-year sentence for his eight involuntary manslaughter convictions, six for each victim. Nichols showed no emotion. had conspired with McVeigh. They wanted to introduce evidence that a group of white supremacists had been McVeigh's accomplices. However, the judge did not allow them to do so, saying that the defense had not shown that any of these people committed acts in furtherance of the conspiracy. In their concluding argument, the defense said, "People who are still unknown assisted Timothy McVeigh." On May 26, 2004, the six-man, six-woman jury took five hours to reach guilty verdicts on all charges. When the verdict was read, Nichols showed no emotion, staring straight ahead. In a May 2005 letter that he wrote to a relative of two of the victims, Nichols claimed that an Arkansas gun dealer also conspired in the 1995 bombing plot by donating some of the explosives that were used. Nichols claimed that in 1992 McVeigh claimed to have been recruited for undercover missions while serving in the military. Nichols also said that in 1995 McVeigh told him that FBI official Larry Potts, who had supervised the Ruby Ridge and Waco operations, had directed McVeigh to blow up a government building. Nichols claimed that he and McVeigh had learned how to make the bomb from individuals they met while attending gun shows. In the same affidavit, Nichols admitted that he and McVeigh stole eight cases of the gel type explosive Tovex from a Marion, Kansas quarry, some of which was later used in the Oklahoma City truck bomb.