As movie about courthouse shooter premieres, hostage recalls how experience turned her life around
A new movie has been released based on the 2005 crime spree of Brian Nichols, which began at an Atlanta courthouse.
On March 11, 2005, Brian Nichols fatally attacked a judge and three others before taking a woman hostage miles away. Captive focuses on Nichols’ interaction with the hostage, Ashley Smith, in her suburban home. It is based on Smith’s book Unlikely Angel, reports the Associated Press.
A meth addict who had lost custody of her 5-year-old daughter, Smith was somehow able to engage with Nichols during her seven-hour ordeal and talk him into surrendering without further violence. Hailed as a hero after he was arrested, she said she saw the situation as a message from God giving her an opportunity to turn her life around.
Since the arrest of Nichols she has never taken drugs and never spoken to him again, Smith told the AP. When she testified at his trial, she avoided eye contact.
Nichols is serving life for the slayings of Judge Rowland Barnes, who had been presiding over Nichols’ rape case in Fulton County Superior Court; court reporter Julie Ann Brandau; Hoyt Teasley, a sheriff’s deputy who pursued Nichols; and David Wilhelm, an off-duty federal agent Nichols killed at home as he stole the keys to Wilhelm’s truck.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Fatal courthouse shooting and violent spree still reverberate 10 years later”
CBS46: “Brian Nichols movie intrigues some, upsets others”
