OKLAHOMA CITY | The FBI has more than a dozen rifles, handguns and shotguns belonging to Oklahoma City bombing co-conspirator Terry Nichols, who wants the guns turned over to his ex-wife because he owes child support, court records show.
Nichols petitioned a federal judge in July, arguing that the guns “had no part” in the 1995 bombing at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building that killed 168 people.
“Mr. Nichols’ firearms had nothing to do with the Oklahoma City (OKC) bombing, none were used in the bombing, nor was the bomb set off by any type of firearm,” Nichols said in the handwritten motion to Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch in Denver, who presided over the trials of Nichols and Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
In a report filed Tuesday, federal prosecutors said the FBI has 13 of Nichols’ guns but that the government has not been briefed on whether the weapons should be handed over to Nichols’ ex-wife.
Federal prosecutors plan “to have a further discussion with the defendant to explore whether the parties may be able to resolve those issues without court intervention,” the report from Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy L. Padden said.
Nichols was convicted of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction and of involuntary manslaughter of eight federal agents. He was sentenced to 161 consecutive sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of civilians.