New Data Contradicts Fortier in Blast Case : Oklahoma: He says Timothy McVeigh robbed an Arkansas gun collector to fund the bombing. But records indicate suspect was in Ohio during heist.

By RICHARD A. SERRANO and RONALD J. OSTROW

Sept. 29, 1995 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITERS

OKLAHOMA CITY — In a development that could cloud the credibility of the government’s key witness, new evidence in the Oklahoma City federal building bombing case appears to challenge Michael Fortier’s account of suspect Timothy J. McVeigh’s alleged involvement in a robbery that the government believes helped finance the blast.

Fortier, who pleaded guilty last month and agreed to testify against McVeigh, has twice said under oath in federal court here that McVeigh participated in a crime in which firearms and gold coins were taken from the home of a Royal, Ark., gun collector last November.

But hotel records and other evidence obtained Thursday by The Times show that on Nov. 5, 1994--the day of the robbery--McVeigh was about 800 miles away at a gun convention in Akron, Ohio.

It was not immediately clear how damaging the discrepancy might be to Fortier’s credibility in the case. In the months before the trial begins, prosecutors will work to reconcile it and other apparent conflicts with their theory of the crime.

But Fortier’s believability is crucial for a prosecution that, five months after the blast, rests heavily on circumstantial evidence.

The April 19 bombing destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing 169 people and injuring another 600. McVeigh and another friend, Terry L. Nichols, are scheduled to stand trial next May as co-conspirators in the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history.

On Nov. 4, McVeigh registered for two nights at the Knights Inn motel in Kent, Ohio, near Akron. He checked out of the motel on Nov. 6.

The gun show took place on the Summit County Fairgrounds in Akron on Nov. 5 and 6. Tony Giordano, an Akron firearms dealer, told investigators in the bombing case that McVeigh, whom he had never met before, attended the show.

“He remembered McVeigh because he loaned him $100, saying that McVeigh had asked for $200 but he didn’t have it,” a summary report of Giordano’s statement to investigators states.

“He said that McVeigh was a very nice kid and he offered Giordano a rifle to be held as collateral but Giordano told him it wasn’t necessary,” the report states.

The FBI visited Giordano after the bombing and told him that “they had gotten his name from a piece of paper found at McVeigh’s father’s house.”

Reached by telephone Thursday, Giordano told The Times: “I really don’t want to get involved in this.”

The evidence of McVeigh’s presence in Akron contradicts what Fortier told the federal court in Oklahoma City when he pleaded guilty Aug. 10. Fortier was not implicated in the bombing but he was charged with having knowledge of the bombing plan and concealing it from authorities, as well as with two weapons offenses.

In his court appearance, Fortier told U.S. District Judge David L. Russell that he conspired with McVeigh and Nichols to transport stolen firearms in the months before the bombing.

“I agreed with Timothy McVeigh to ride to Kansas to pick up weapons he and Terry Nichols had stolen from a man in Arkansas,” Fortier told the judge.

Fortier also gave the judge a handwritten “Factual Statement In Support of Plea Petition” in which he said: “On Dec. 15 and 16 I rode with Tim McVeigh from my home in Kingman, Az., to Kansas. There I was to receive weapons that Tim McVeigh told me had been stolen by Terry Nichols and himself.”

But the evidence obtained by The Times from Akron does not directly conflict with the government’s indictment of McVeigh and Nichols. The grand jury said only that the defendants “caused” the Nov. 5 robbery of more than 60 rifles and pistols and $8,500 in cash from Roger Moore, a gun collector in Royal, Ark.

Sources close to the case interpreted the word “caused” to mean that prosecutors do not necessarily believe McVeigh physically took part in the robbery.

Moore first told local authorities in Arkansas that he was robbed by McVeigh, whom he had met on the gun show circuit. Later, he said that he thought McVeigh might have only helped plan or stage the robbery.

In a bizarre twist, The Times learned Thursday that before the Oklahoma City bombing, Moore wrote a letter to McVeigh complaining that no one had been arrested in the theft.

According to a source close to the case, the letter said, in part: “The cops are no help. Can you come back and help me find out who robbed me?”

* Serrano reported from Oklahoma City and Ostrow from Washington.