On this date in 2005, Brian Nichols, the defendant in a rape case in Atlanta, overpowered the deputy assigned to guard him and took her gun. Nichols then went on a shooting spree that left four people dead. He was arrested after police received a tip from Ashley Smith, a woman Nichols had held hostage for seven hours after escaping from the court house.
After multiple delays, Nichols was tried on 54 criminal counts in October 2008. The jury found him guilty on all counts. He received multiple life sentences, with no possibility for parole.
Further reading:
About.com – Brian Nichols: Atlanta Courthouse Killer
Wikipedia – Brian Nichols
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[…] Source: this day in crime history: march 11, 2005 […]
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John D.:
Makes you long for the OLD days of swift justice…usually at some executioner’s hands.
Such vermin should be left to rot in the darkest deepest cell we can create.
Once might say he DID get a “death sentence”…death by OLD AGE.
(not my first choice).
Good story.
Stay safe out there.
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Hopefully, they’ll take sufficient precautions in prison so he can’t victimize anyone else.
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One of the people he murdered was a Federal agent (ICE Supervisory Special Agent) who was working on a house he had just bought and had left his gun in his vehicle. He was unarmed and defenseless when this offender confronted him.
There’s a lesson there.
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Most definitely. But it’s a lesson some people refuse to learn.
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