ATLANTA (AP) — After nearly three years investigating a courthouse gunman's bizarre break out scheme, prosecutors are walking away from the case without charging anyone, despite evidence the shooter's pen pal-turned girlfriend paid off a jail guard.
Brian Nichols' elaborate plot included sawing
through cinder block walls, fleeing on Thanksgiving Day because the guards
would be sluggish from feasting and leaving a faux breadcrumb trail to throw
off authorities, according to investigative documents reviewed by The
Associated Press. The scheming involved at least four people — a pen pal who
became his girlfriend, a deputy at the jail, a paralegal who worked on his case
and Nichols' brother.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, whose agents
spent countless hours investigating, closed the case Wednesday. The file, which
included thousands of pages reviewed by the AP, noted that prosecutors chose
not to press charges.
Nichols' girlfriend, Lisa Meneguzzo, played a key
role in the plot, coming up with cash, writing letters to Nichols and doing
research for him, according to the document. Fulton County prosecutors granted
her immunity in return for her cooperation, preventing her from being charged.
The deputy, David Ramsey, admitted accepting at
least $100 from Nichols' girlfriend and used money she sent one of his friends
to buy a DVD player, according to the documents. But he told authorities he
took the money to keep Nichols' cell phone charged and to buy the inmate snacks
from a vending machine, not to help in the escape. He told them he thought
Meneguzzo was "crazy."
Ramsey resigned in June 2006, about the time
investigators were tipped off by an inmate about Nichols' plot and his cell was
searched. The circumstances of why Ramsey stepped down were unclear.
Layla Zon, the special prosecutor designated to
handle the case didn't immediately comment, but apparently didn't have enough
evidence to charge the paralegal, Tamela Hysten, or Nichols' brother, Mark.
Meneguzzo also said Hysten smuggled letters out of
the prison for Brian Nichols, and that she paid the paralegal $500 to deliver
Nichols a book about escape and to bring him a device made by his brother that
would help cut through the walls, the report said.
Meneguzzo declined to comment Wednesday. Ramsey did
not return repeated phone calls, and a phone number for Mark Nichols was
disconnected. Hysten also didn't return a telephone call, but her attorney
previously said she did nothing wrong.
Hundreds of manpower hours were used to investigate
the case, and the investigation came as prosecutors were already taking heat
for a $3 million taxpayer funded defense for Nichols, who escaped from custody
in March 2005 at the Fulton County Courthouse and killed a judge, a court reporter,
a sheriff's deputy and, later, a federal agent.
Nichols started plotting his escape from jail a
couple of months later. Meneguzzo, of Beacon Falls, Conn., contacted Nichols
shortly after the courthouse rampage and he wrote back in flirty notes that mention
his favorite foods and his desire to be with her. Soon, he was telling her
"morale among the guards here" was low because they were not being
paid well, and that he could use that as leverage to help.
Soon, she managed to smuggle in a cellphone, according
to the documents, and gave Ramsey a charger to keep the phone juiced.
Nichols also instructed his girlfriend to call a
concrete company and ask how to cut a hole in a cinder block wall, and she told
investigators she met with the jail guard in her hotel room. Ramsey sketched a
map of the jail, including a list of walls that couldn't be penetrated and told
her to take pictures of the facility to help Nichols escape, according to the
documents.
Nichols, who was facing the death penalty, was
undaunted by the task of escaping.
"You know my thoughts about the impossible,
it's only an excuse for lack of initiative and ambition," Nichols wrote to
his girlfriend in June 2005. "It's going to be a challenge, but we must
stand firm in our resolution while adjusting to the dynamics of the cards of
life we have been dealt."
Nichols also wanted his brother to go to the hiking
and biking Silver Comet Trail in west Georgia and leave hot sauce packets and a
brown bag lunch with Nichols' name on it to throw police off. He asked
Meneguzzo to buy a white cargo van, emblazoned with the Red Cross emblem.
In a June 2006 letter to her, he talked of hiding
in the boxes in the back of the van.
"I'll have at least a 9-hour head start, and
should be able to make it to at least Kentucky, maybe Ohio" before police
are aware, he wrote.
He aimed to escape on Thanksgiving, when guards
"will be full from all that food, since it's a holiday there will be
skeleton staff." If his brother got caught helping, Nichols thought he
wouldn't mind.
"It's really a win-win situation all the way
around because if something goes wrong and he gets caught, the most he will do
is 5 yrs aiding and abetting a fugitive and he'll have the opportunity for book
and movie deals out the wazoo. In fact, after I get out, he could admit that he
helped me and get book and movie deals out the wazoo."
After Meneguzzo expressed concern, Nichols wrote
her a June 2005 note addressed to "Lisa Nichols" that tried to calm
her.
"But really, to stand against tyranny and
oppression is the responsibility of the righteous and you should be
commended," he wrote. "You are doing the right thing, never forget
that."
Trudy Brandau, the sister of court reporter Nichols
gunned down, said she considers the case closed and was glad there are no more
prosecutions.
"The thought of bringing anything about that
back up is disturbing in itself," she said. "We don't want to have to
relive any of this. It's unfortunate how the whole case came down, and the end
result was wrong. But I feel like life could be too short and I don't want to
dwell on it."
Associated Press writer Harry R. Weber contributed
to this report from New Orleans.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
(AP Photo/Kimberly Smith, Pool, File)
