Detective says he didn't ask if Nichols wanted to talk to lawyer

<p>A police detective who questioned accused courthouse gunman Brian Nichols said Tuesday he never asked the suspect if he wanted to first talk to the lawyer who was representing him in the rape case that was pending at the time of the shootings.</p><p>Detective Vincent Velazquez also testified that Nichols twice inquired about attorney Barry Hazen's whereabouts before confessing to the March 11, 2005, killings of a judge, court reporter, sheriff's deputy and federal agent.</p><p>But Velazquez said that since Nichols did not ask to speak to Hazen and later waived his right to speak to an attorney before being questioned, there was no need for police to ask Nichols if he wanted to talk to Hazen specifically.</p><p>"I was surprised that he agreed to speak with me," Velazquez said. "It's just surprising to me that someone who committed a heinous crime would confess to it. I wouldn't."</p><p>The testimony came during the second day of a hearing in which defense lawyers were seeking to have the court throw out their client's statements to police following his arrest the day after the shootings that started at the Fulton County Courthouse.</p><p>The hearing, which also will address a defense motion to throw out the murder charges against Nichols, was expected to last several more days.</p><p>The full details of Nichols' statements to police have not been revealed. However, on Monday an FBI agent testified that Nichols told authorities he lashed out because his girlfriend had a relationship with the couple's church pastor. That statement came during a 20-minute ride with Nichols from the suburban Atlanta apartment where he was arrested to the FBI office in Atlanta, agent Joseph Fonseca said.</p><p>Nichols was being retried on charges that he raped the off-and-on girlfriend when he allegedly grabbed a deputy's gun and went on the shooting spree. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. His murder trial has been scheduled for Oct. 3 in the same courthouse complex where the spree started.</p><p>Nichols, 34, is accused of killing the judge presiding over his rape retrial and the judge's court reporter. Police say Nichols later killed a sheriff's deputy who chased him outside the courthouse, and a federal agent who encountered him at a home a few miles away.</p><p>Nichols surrendered the next day after allegedly taking a woman hostage in her suburban Atlanta apartment.</p>