Circumstantial Evidence May Be Key in Bombing Trial : Courts: Case against McVeigh, Nichols in Oklahoma City explosion not open and shut, but prosecution appears to be ahead, legal expert says.

OKLAHOMA CITY —  The attorney for Terry L. Nichols was flashing large poster cards protesting his client’s innocence. Timothy J. McVeigh’s lawyer read in an even deadpan from an 11-page statement debunking the government’s case.

And federal prosecutors passed out snappy press kits outlining grand jury indictments against the two men in the April 19 mass-murder destruction of the federal office building in Oklahoma City.

That was Thursday--indictment day--a day for all sides in the case to tell the public with chin-up confidence that their side will prevail.

Then came Friday, the first day of a likely six months of pretrial legal wrangling, and it was becoming quickly clear that neither side--defense nor prosecution--has an open-and-shut, trouble-free case.

At this stage, the government appears to have an advantage over the defense “at least in public perception,” said Arthur LeFrancois, a professor of law at Oklahoma City University. “That’s why we see the signs and other things Michael Tigar [Nichols’ attorney] is carrying. The defense will have to play catch up.”

But, he stressed, “to the extent that the government does seem ahead right now, the expectations on the part of the citizenry are very, very high. If the government cannot show in a conclusive way [that] its version of things represents the truth, then there could very well be a really strong, negative reaction by the jury.”

For prosecutors, even with the help of star witness Michael Fortier and an 11-count indictment against McVeigh and Nichols, their evidence so far appears largely circumstantial.

Credibility problems have arisen over Fortier, who pleaded guilty to lesser charges in the case, and Bob Elliott, who allegedly rented McVeigh the Ryder truck but appears unsure about a “John Doe No. 2.”

There also remains the problem of a detached leg found at the blast site that is yet to be matched with any of the victims. McVeigh’s camp contends it could have belonged to the real bomber.

But McVeigh is far from being home free. He allegedly stole and sold firearms to finance the bombing; allegedly purchased and stockpiled fertilizer, and allegedly delivered the bomb to the front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

Three strong pieces of evidence place him there: He used his real name at a Kansas motel near the truck rental agency. The truck axle was found in the bomb debris. And Elliott is at least sure that McVeigh rented that truck.

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As for Nichols, he also has been linked to the illegal gun-running, as well as to the storage lockers used to house the bomb ingredients. His blue-and-white pickup reportedly was seen at the spot in Kansas where authorities believe the bomb was packed into the Ryder truck.

The Nichols and McVeigh defense teams also find themselves at odds with one another, worried that allegations against one defendant could spread like oil and stain the other’s case as well.

Separately, they plan to try to persuade a federal judge to allow individual trials outside Oklahoma.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Wayne E. Alley, a former military lawyer and dean of the Oklahoma University law school, was named to preside over the case.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers agreed to meet Monday at the U.S. attorney’s office to begin ironing out pretrial discovery matters. Arraignments are expected as early as Monday afternoon or Tuesday.

Patrick Ryan, the U.S. attorney here, said he hopes to keep the trial here, and will recommend next week that McVeigh and Nichols be executed if convicted.

But Tigar has argued that there is a huge amount of public antipathy against the defendants and too much publicity--1,784 stories in the Daily Oklahoman alone.

“A Fair Trial In A Fair Forum,” he plastered on one of his poster cards. “That,” he said, “is our goal. Right now. Today.”

On the death penalty issue, McVeigh’s attorney, Stephen Jones, noted that U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno announced immediately after the blast that capital punishment would be sought for the bombers. He said that makes a sham of her policy of allowing local federal prosecutors to make recommendations on capital cases before she decides.

“It should have been publicly withdrawn,” Jones said of the Reno statement. “The government must not act out of passion, but first must determine what happened and why it happened, and then what our policy should be.”

Jones also is raising questions about the leg found at the site. The severed limb has not been matched with any of the 168 dead. According to sources close to the case, it could be some time before an exhaustive review of the limb’s hair, tissue, bone and DNA unveils the man’s identity. Meanwhile, FBI agents are investigating whether the leg belonged to a homeless man.

Jones and Tigar also attacked prosecutors for making a deal with Fortier that would let him receive a lighter sentence in return for his testimony against McVeigh and Nichols. They plan to test his credibility at trial, noting that by his own admission he was heavily involved in the financing of the bombing, as well as the effort to keep it quiet.

But the defense attorneys separate on other points. Tigar stressed repeatedly that Nichols was not in Oklahoma City on April 19. He portrayed his client as a hard-working, honest “good father” who, despite his anti-government leanings, is not a mass murderer.

Tigar also pointed out that his client’s brother, James D. Nichols of Decker, Mich., has been freed from federal explosives charges there--perhaps a harbinger of hope for his brother, Terry.

Times staff writer Ronald J. Ostrow in Washington contributed to this story.