McVeigh Gets Death Convicted Bomber Sits Stoically as Jury Renders Its Decision

DENVER — A federal court jury decided Friday that Timothy J. McVeigh should be put to death for exploding a truck bomb that killed 168 people at the Oklahoma City federal building.

The jury determined that the 29-year-old former soldier should die by lethal injection for his role in the bombing, which also injured more than 500 people in the deadliest criminal assault in U.S. history.

With formal sentencing likely next month and with the judge bound by the jury’s recommendation, prosecutors hope that the punishment meted out after 11 hours of deliberations will send a strong message to other anti-government fanatics who might wish to follow in McVeigh’s footsteps.

In the courtroom, McVeigh sat stoically, as he has throughout the seven-week trial. As U.S. District Judge Richard P. Matsch read the jury’s verdict form, McVeigh put his hand on his chin, his elbows on the defense table, staring at the judge.

Moments later, escorted from the courtroom by four armed federal marshals, McVeigh turned briefly to his parents and sister. He craned his head over the marshals and told his family: “It’s OK.”

McVeigh also spoke privately with lead defense attorney Stephen Jones after the verdict. “He was not surprised. He had prepared himself for it,” the lawyer said.

McVeigh’s father’s shoulders slumped, his sister cried and his mother sat silently when the verdict was read. Later Friday, his mother, Mildred Frazer, blamed the media and government for her son’s fate in an interview on ABC-TV’s “20/20.”

“Since my son--the day he was arrested--I feel that it was done, that he was convicted and sentenced to death by the media and the government.” she said. “I’m not saying he didn’t have a fair trial. I’m just saying that I don’t think that it was done right from the beginning.”

Outside the courthouse after the jury’s decision was announced, Joseph H. Hartzler, the lead government attorney, said: “Today is not a day of great joy for the prosecution team. We’re pleased the system worked and justice prevailed. But the verdict doesn’t diminish the great sadness that occurred in Oklahoma City two years ago. Our only hope is that the verdict will go some way to preventing such a terrible, drastic crime from ever occurring again,” he said.

Jones was equally somber in his remarks:

“The jury has spoken and their verdict is entitled to respect,” he said. “And all Americans should accord it that respect until such time, if ever, it is overturned by a court of competent jurisdiction.

“We ask that the barriers and intolerance which have divided us may crumble, that suspicions disappear and that hatred cease. And that our divisions and intolerance being healed, we may live together in justice and peace.”

Juror Vera Chubb, 65, who lives in Loveland, Colo., about 55 miles north of Denver, told The Times in a telephone interview:

“Tim McVeigh just sat there somberly, almost emotionless, throughout the trial--even today. . . . He just looked at us, and we looked at him, each one of us.

“But we had agreed earlier that when we gave the verdict, we would look him right in the eye. And we all did, all 12 of us,” she said. “We could not hang our heads.

“I just hope we made some sort of closure for the people of Oklahoma City,” she added. “I hope they are pleased with what we did.”

Jurors Talk About Decision-Making

Chubb said there was no single piece of evidence that swayed her.

“All the pieces just fell together from day one,” she said. “No one thing told us he was guilty--it was everything together.”

Deciding whether McVeigh should live or die, she said, was difficult. “When you have to take a man’s life, it’s very difficult,” she said. “Now that’s over; I feel very, very relieved.”

Another juror, Tonya Stedman, 24, a waitress who lives in Denver, also interviewed by telephone, called Friday’s decision “huge.”

“We’re talking about a person’s life,” she said. “It wasn’t simple. “We looked at everything carefully in both phases of the trial and took our time,” she said. “The prosecution was very thorough and that speaks to our verdict.”

In front of the downtown courthouse, a crowd of several hundred people, many of them federal workers from the government complex next door, were subdued and respectful as the team of prosecutors marched past.

Unlike June 2, when McVeigh was found guilty in the April 19, 1995, bombing, the crowd did not cheer, applaud or whistle at the prosecutors.

Matsch did not set a date for the formal sentencing of the former Army tank gunner and decorated Persian Gulf War soldier. But he asked attorneys on both sides to return to the courtroom by July 7 to hear motions for a new trial, a routine step in what is expected to be a lengthy appeals process for McVeigh.

While bombing victims and the families of people killed in the blast were united in their relief at McVeigh’s conviction, several of them reacted differently to the sentence of death.

“I feel great,” said Charles Tomlin, who lost his son, Ricky Lee Tomlin, 46. “We’re putting to death the guy who killed 168 people so he can’t enjoy anything that our people can’t enjoy either.

“That’s what needs to be done with him. He was an animal when he done it. He doesn’t deserve to live,” Tomlin said.

But Marsha Kight, whose 23-year-old daughter, Frankie Ann Merrell, was killed, walked out of the courtroom with her belief against the death penalty still intact.

“There’s a lot of pain in living,” she said. “Death is pretty easy sometimes, I think. With lethal injection, you’re gone in 10 minutes.”

She added: “I am relieved that it’s over and I can go home for awhile. But I don’t have any closure on this. It’s just not there.”

Panel Weighed Number of Questions

The jury of seven men and five women--including a Navy veteran from the Vietnam War, a maintenance man, an elderly woman and a man with some hearing loss because he had attended more than 15 Grateful Dead concerts--began deliberating in the penalty phase of the trial shortly after noon Thursday.

When the jurors returned to Matsch’s courtroom about 3:20 p.m. MDT Friday, the foreman handed the nine-page verdict form to the judge, who then slowly read it.

The jurors were required by law to pass judgment on a series of questions regarding aggravating and mitigating factors involving McVeigh and the bombing. On the first list of questions, they were asked for “yes” or “no” responses.

Among their answers, sweeping in their consensus against McVeigh:

The defendant intentionally killed the victims? “Yes.”

The defendant intentionally inflicted serious bodily injury that resulted in the death of the victims? “Yes.”

The defendant intentionally participated in an act, contemplating that the life of a person would be taken . . . and the victims died as a result of that act? “Yes.”

Mitigating Factors Were Introduced

Next, the jury was asked to weigh statements about McVeigh posed by defense lawyers. These statements dealt with McVeigh’s deep hatred for the government after law enforcement raids on private citizens, as well as his belief that the government was trying to set up a totalitarian regime in this country.

In each instance, the number of jurors who agreed with the statement had been written behind the question. Among the statements:

“McVeigh believed deeply in the ideals upon which the United States was founded.” None.

“McVeigh believed that the [federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms] and FBI were responsible for the deaths of everyone who lost their lives at Mt. Carmel, near Waco, Texas, between Feb. 28 and April 19, 1993.” 12.

“McVeigh believed that federal law enforcement agents murdered Sammy Weaver and Vicki Weaver near Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in August 1992.” 12.

‘McVeigh believed that the increasing use of military-style force and tactics by federal law enforcement agencies against American citizens threatened an approaching police state.” 12.

McVeigh did not think federal agents were properly punished for their actions at Waco and Ruby Ridge, which “added to his growing concerns regarding the existence of a police state and a loss of constitutional liberties.” 12.

“McVeigh served honorably and with great distinction in the United States Army.” 10.

Clinton Expresses Nation’s Gratitude

Finally, on the bottom-line decision on a sentence of death, life in prison with no parole or a lesser sentence to be decided by the court, the jury was asked how “the defendant, Timothy James McVeigh, shall be sentenced.”

The foreman, in printed capital letters, wrote: “DEATH.”

In Washington, President Clinton expressed the nation’s gratitude for the jury’s service and its “grave decision.”

In Denver, the U.S. attorney from Oklahoma City, Pat Ryan--who had been appointed by Clinton--expressed his feelings about those who believe that the federal government has become too intrusive in the lives of ordinary citizens.

“I would like to tell the people in the Patriot community that I hope that what was said about them in this courtroom was wrong,” he said. “I don’t think there are people out there who believe the way this defendant believes.

“Hopefully, they understand that the way to change policy is to go to the voting booth, ask for congressional hearings and be dogged in their pursuit of what they believe to be justice.

“But the taking of innocent lives, such as what occurred in Oklahoma City, is never the right course of action.”

Some of the defense attorneys said they see room for an appeal in the McVeigh case.

Chris Tritico said obvious points of contention are the fact that the judge did not allow into evidence an entire Justice Department inspector general’s report, which sharply criticized the FBI crime laboratory in Washington and, specifically, how it had handled evidence taken in the Oklahoma City case.

Defense Lawyers Look at Appeal

Rob Nigh, another defense attorney, pointed out that the judge did not allow the McVeigh team to explore conspiracy theories suggesting that people other than McVeigh were behind the blast.

“All of that will be something that we will have to look at as we’re preparing an appeal,” Tritico said. “And we can’t really address every issue right now. We just got the verdict.”

Added Nigh: “We’re going to file the best motions we can and, if the motions are denied, of course we will make the proper appeals.”

In releasing the jury, Matsch said he could not legally bar them from talking about the case. But because another trial in the bombing is yet to begin, the judge encouraged them not to discuss what they think about Terry L. Nichols, the second defendant in the bombing case.

“You haven’t tried him,” the judge said. “You haven’t heard all the evidence against him.”

The Nichols trial, expected to begin later this summer, is considered much more complex.

While McVeigh was convicted of renting a Ryder truck and delivering the bomb to the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, there has been no evidence that Nichols helped lease the vehicle or was in Oklahoma City on the morning of the blast.

But there is evidence that Nichols rented storage lockers and participated in at least two robberies in which guns and dynamite were stolen in the months before the blast.

And the government contends that Nichols participated in the purchase of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil, the two key ingredients used in building the bomb.

Times staff writer Louis Sahagun contributed to this story.

* HOMETOWN REACTION

Those who watched McVeigh grow up express shock, sadness upon learning his fate. A21