<p>Lawyers for a man accused of killing a judge and three others want evidence in the case preserved after they learned that the courtroom where the shooting spree started was cleaned before they had a chance to view it.</p><p>New ceiling tiles and carpet have been put in and bloodstained furniture has been cleaned in courtroom 8H at the Fulton County Courthouse, where a judge and court reporter were killed March 11. A sheriff's deputy was killed outside and a federal agent was slain a few miles away.</p><p>At a hearing Thursday for the accused gunman, Brian Nichols, defense lawyers said they had hoped to walk through the crime scene and take their own pictures before it was altered.</p><p>"You can't undo what's been done," defense lawyer Henderson Hill said.</p><p>In the future, he said, the defense wants all evidence in the case preserved for its independent inspection. And, Hill said, the defense still wants to walk through courtroom 8H.</p><p>Prosecutors did not object to the motion, and Superior Court Judge Hilton Fuller said he was inclined to approve it. Fuller also said he would order the Georgia Bureau of Investigation not to destroy any forensic evidence they have tested in the case. Prosecutor Michele McCutcheon said the GBI normally only keeps evidence for a limited period of time.</p><p>Nichols was not present at Thursday's hearing.</p><p>The courtroom was cleaned because court officials need to use it for other cases, said court administrator Judith Cramer, adding that no one from the defense approached her about preserving the scene.</p><p>"The carpets have been replaced in areas that were around the bench and the court reporter's area," Cramer said. "We're preparing it for the court's use. We're running out of space."</p><p>Cramer also said that some ceiling tiles were replaced and furniture and walls stained with blood were cleaned.</p><p>The courtroom has not been used since the shootings.</p><p>The lawyers Thursday also discussed a defense motion to move jury selection and the trial, which has not yet been scheduled, out of the Fulton County Courthouse, noting that it is a crime scene.</p><p>The motion is not a request for a change of venue because the defense currently is not asking the case be moved out of the county, only the downtown courthouse. Prosecutors said they may be able to work something out with the defense, but so far another site has not been suggested.</p><p>"We are more likely than not to agree that it will have to be moved to another site in Fulton County," prosecutor Christopher Quinn said.</p><p>The judge has not ruled on the site change request.</p><p>Nichols is accused of overpowering a deputy, grabbing her gun and entering the courtroom where his rape trial was scheduled to resume. There, authorities say, he killed the judge presiding over the trial and a court reporter. Police say he then killed a sheriff's deputy who chased after him and, that night, a federal agent at a home north of downtown. He was captured the next day after, police said, he took a woman hostage in an Atlanta suburb.</p><p>Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.</p><p>Security has been tightened at the courthouse since the shootings, and several investigations and security reviews have been launched.</p><p>Two days before the shootings, shanks were found in each of Nichols' shoes and he was unshackled when he overpowered the deputy.</p><p>Defense lawyers previously filed a motion asking prosecutors to turn over any records that may show Nichols was mentally or emotionally disturbed at the time of the shootings.</p><p>The lawyers also said they want the state to produce any records that show Nichols reasonably believed there was a "moral justification" for the crimes.</p><p>That motion, too, has not yet been ruled on.</p><p>A motion hearing is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 3.</p>
