Nichols Letters Detail Prison Escape Plan

By Odette Yousef

Atlanta, GA – Yesterday, jurors in the Brian Nichols trial heard how he concocted an elaborate plan to escape from Fulton County prison. The prosecution will likely wrap up its phase of the trial today.

The plans were detailed in letters that Nichols wrote to Lisa Meneguzzo, a Connecticut woman who wrote to Nichols in prison after hearing about his alleged shooting spree. They developed a relationship.

In a letter read in court by handwriting expert Brian McVicker, Nichols said his goal was to influence the potential jury pool:

My goal is not to just avoid the death penalty and spend the rest of my life in prison. My goal is a not guilty verdict. And believe me, in Fulton County, where there are a large number of people pissed off at the way the criminal justice system treats people, it can happen.

In the second letter from 2006, Nichols describes his plan to escape from prison. Dubbed Operation Escape, it was for Thanksgiving night, when prison staff, will be full from all that food, since it's a holiday there, will be skeleton staff and they will be asleep.

Nichols is charged with killing a Fulton County Superior Court judge and three others in March of 2005.