RHONDA COOK
An Atlanta homicide detective said Tuesday he was surprised murder suspect Brian Nichols agreed to talk to him without an attorney and then confessed to the March 11, 2005, courthouse killings.
Continuing a week of hearings in Fulton County Superior Court on pre-trial motions, Detective Vincent Velazquez told how he put Nichols at ease with talk of basketball and cheeseburgers before discussing his constitutional right to have an attorney present during questioning.
He said they also discussed whether the suspect’s lawyer from a rape trial had been called.
The defense wants to keep from any jury Nichols’ statements made during interrogations just after he surrendered March 12, 2005.
The defense lawyers are arguing that Nichols made those statements without the benefit of having an attorney present.
Nichols spoke to two federal agents and Velazquez during the drive from the Gwinnett County apartment complex where he surrendered to FBI offices, and then to Atlanta police headquarters.
Velazquez, while being questioned by one of Nichols’ lawyers Tuesday, testified he was “surprised” that Nichols wanted “to talk to me. What surprised me was a person accused of such a heinous crime would confess to it.”
Two FBI agents testified Monday that Nichols told them “this whole thing started” because of a relationship between his former girlfriend and an associate minister. Nichols was being retried on charges of raping the woman.
Nichols’ attorneys Tuesday challenged investigators’ decision not to call the suspect’s attorney at the time, Barry Hazen, or to allow death penalty lawyers to sit in during interrogations.
After Nichols was transferred by the FBI to Atlanta police custody, Velazquez said the suspect asked about Hazen.
“‘Mr. Hazen is not coming down?’” the detective said Nichols asked.
“Who’s that,” Velazquez said he asked Nichols.
Nichols responded, “ ‘He’s my attorney,’” the detective said.
Velazquez said he told Nichols that Hazen had not “contacted us,” to which he said the suspect responded, “OK, that’s fine.”
Velazquez said even though Nichols twice asked about Hazen he never said “ ‘I’d like to talk to him.’ That’s what I expected him to say.”
The detective said he then read Nichols his Miranda rights, which include the right to an attorney.
Nichols pleaded not guilty to killing Superior Judge Rowland Barnes, court reporter Julie Ann Brandau, sheriff’s deputy Sgt. Hoyt Teasley and U.S. Customs Agent David Wilhelm.
In addition to the pending defense request to suppress Nichols’ statements to investigators, there is a challenge of the composition of the potential jury pool and a question of whether Fulton deputies should be allowed to serve as bailiffs during the trial.
Copyright 2006 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution