The Commercial Appeal from Memphis, Tennessee • 1

The Commercial Appeal VAJO 158th Year No 358 4 Sections Memphis Tennessee Wednesday December 24 1997 FINAL 500 GOOD MORNING Nichols guilty io bomb plot conspiracy but not murder Convicted of From Our Prow SwvIcm DENVER Terry Nichols was convicted Tuesday of conspiring to bomb the Oklahoma City federal building but in a nuanced verdict he was acquitted of actually committing what was the worst terrorist act on US soil The federal District Court jury found Nichols guilty of involuntary manslaughter but to the dismay of many relatives of the blast's victims acquitted him of the far more serious charge of murder and destruction by explosives In the death of the eight federal agents in the federal building the jury rejected first- and second-degree murder charges and Terry settled on in- Nichols voluntary manslaughter which is defined as unlawful killing of a human being without Under instructions from US Dist Judge Richard Matsch Please see GUILTY Page A4 explode a Ryder rental truck packed with a homemade witches brew of ammonium nitrate fertilizer and fuel oil killing 168 people Nichols prosecutors said was deeply involved in the plan at its beginning in the fall of 1994 But defense lawyers argued in the months before the actual bombing he dropped ties to McVeigh and they insisted was seeking to a life not a verdict found Nichols guilty of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction but not guilty of using a weapon of mass destruction open Monday to Collierville Today's weather Cloudy and breezy with showers expected High of 52 Mostly cloudy tonight with a For details see A9 Reb challenge: Ole Miss's defense is hoping it can harness star receiver Randy Moss in the Motor City Bowl D1 Terrorist convicted: 'Carlos the Jackal' found guilty in Paris of three 1975 murders A2 Good to be alive: The inside of a hospital has a different meaning this year for the Threlkeld family B1 Head start: The White House pastry chef spends six months working on holiday baked goods for the first family Cl INDEX AmLsndsrs CS Still the conviction on the conspiracy count could bring Nichols the death penalty ana the jury will convene again Monday to begin hearing evidence and testimony to decide his fate After struggling with the case for 41 hours over six days the jurors drew a distinction between Nichols and Timothy McVeigh who was convicted this year on all 11 counts of their joint indictment and sentenced to death It was McVeigh with his hatred of the federal government the prosecutors said who was the prime mover in the plot to drive can take 45 minutes to an hour depending on traffic That's usmgPoplar all the way downtown Poplar to 1-240 or Poplar to Winchester and then Winchester to Nonconnah at Riverdale And it only those commuting all the way downtown who will benefit The new route also will facilitate movement from point to point within southeast Shelby County Rather tnan using Winchester more and more congested due to development and road improvements on the far eastern segment motorists will be able to get to Collierville by hopping on Nonconnah at Riverdale winchester at Germantown Road Hacks Cross south of Winchester or Forest Hill-Irene south of Winchester Motorists from farther west can connect with Nonconnah from 1-240 or they can get on at Ridgeway or Kirby Parkway McIntyre said there will be a few details to complete after the official opening to traffic but that the work is essentially complete have been working pretty much seven days a week to get it McIntyre said be clone actu- now at the animal shelter facing ally ahead of state system has been a long Sundquist had called for the time coming One of the largest completion of the 67-mile $91 projects ever undertaken by million segment by the end of TDOT first sec-this yearvto accommodate Fed- tion opened almost four years eral Express which is building ago to the day That was when a telecommunications and in- the initial short segment began formation complex in Collier- moving traffic between 1-240 ville near ML Moriah and Ridge- Realization of the dream of way around Christmas 1993 connecting the eastern Shelby The second section opened County suburbs with the inter- Dec 23 1995 a 29-mile seg GUILTY Conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction for his participation in plotting to bomb the Oklahoma City federal building Involuntary manslaughter for the deaths of eight federal agents Involuntary manslaughter was defined for the jury as "the unlawful killing of a human being without NOT GUILTY Use of a weapon of mass destruction using a truck bomb to kill Destruction by explosive using a truck bomb to destroy the building Stsffmsp ment from Ridgeway to the current dead-endat Riverdale The opening of the Ridge-way-to-Riverdale section completely transformed the landscape of the formerly vacant southeast Shelby County property near the Winchester-Riverdale intersection Major retail development has filled in Please see OPEN Page A4 taking similar to the complete revision of the adult' criminal code and sentencing laws approved in 1989 Woodall served on the commission that spent two years on the revision That far-reaching project removed some antiquated laws from the books and modernized others Perhaps most significantly the 1989 reforms set up a sentencing matrix that categorized crimes according to their seriousness and set ranges of sentences accordingly Sundquist said the juvenile crime commission focus on the current problems we are facing in our juvenile crime system these laws were written 30 years ago juvenile crime consisted of pranks and petty crimes Today children are committing some of the most heinous crimes in our communities and there are no laws to adequately deal with those offenders When 1 was a child was something you- saw at tne he said administration submitted a limited juvenile Please see CRIME Page A4 unsaturated fat which can lower blood levels of cholester-oL Dr Scott Grundy criticized the research for linking stroke risk to dietary fat based on what each subject said he had eaten in one 24-hour period at the outset a very weak said Grundy who helped write federal guidelines that advise limiting total fat intake to 30 percent of calories consumed and saturated fat to 10 percent By Ron Maxcy T)w Commercial Appeal With the snip of a ribbon a new era in transportation will begin Monday for southeast Shelby County-Gov Don Sundquist will cut the ribbon at 11 am to open the next segment of Nonconnah Parkway The ceremony will be on the eastbound side of the bridge over Riverdale just north of Winchester on the eastern edge of the Hickory Hill community where the parkway currently ends The opening represents com- Siletion of the longest section so hr of Nonconnah which now will run from Interstate 240 all the way to Bailey Station near Poplar in Collierville It means that for the first time motorists can travel without stopping between Collierville and downtown Memphis What will that mean for the average motorist? it should cut the trip (between downtown and Collierville) in said Bill McIntyre district engineer for the Tennessee Department of Transportation Without Nonconnah the A suddenly unlucky beagle Is Law dogs Panel to rewrite Tennessee crime law for juveniles By Richard Locker Tht Commercial AppMl Nashvilts Burasu Chlsf NASHVILLE After finding it too complicated to revise parts of juvenile crime code Gov Don Sundquist appointed a 17-member commission Tuesday to completely rewite state laws for juvenile offenders The governor appointed Dist Atty Gen Jerry Woodall of Jackson as chairman of the panel which will spend a year to 18 months on its work Three officials in the Shelby County justice system Dist Atty Gen Bill Gibbons Circuit Court Judge Karen Williams and Victims Assistance Center Director Linda Miller plus former NAACP executive director Ben Hooks of Memphis will also serve on the commission The governor said he hopes the commission can present its draft in time for the 1999 session of the state legislature which must approve the changes before they become law The project is a major under pooch till luck ends By Tom Bailey Jr Tlw Commercial Appeal The large black tan and white beagle seemed to know every hole in every backyard fence through which flee from Stanback and other city workers But every official from Mayor George Harvell Jr to Public Works Director Jack Huffman to Stanback is convinced that Lucky used another key skill to stay on the lam: He recognized the official white pickups and tied from them as if his freedom depended on it knows all the city Stanback aid he sees one he stops and waits to IN THE NEWS A New Haven Conn man was busted for allegedly trying to hold up a store while armed with a Dustbuster George Foster 43 entered a Wal-Mart early Monday pointed an object concealed In a an employee money police said When the cashier refused Foster fled His clean getaway was toiled by a police officer entering the store COMING THURSDAY Readers share poignant holiday stories of surprise sacrifice war and romance Look for them Thursday in Appeal For home delivery: (901)529-2686 or 1 -800-444-NEWS toll free To fix the newsroom: (901) 529-2522 On the World Wide Web: Mtprfwwwgomrnnphlscom Cspyri0tf 1N7 TIm ComnwtM AppMl 0 In the end the emerald color of a pickup and a hole-free fence proved the undoing of wiliest stray hound Authorities had come to call him Lucky because he managed to elude them for two years before his capture Saturday But they respected him more than the name implies the smartest dog ever come said Rodney Stanback Public Works supervisor and animal control officer death If not adopted toon Please see LUCKY Page A4 in: more be the healthiest diet of all A previous report linked a high intake of fruits and vegetables to a reduced risk of stroke Researchers noted that brain arteries responsible for strokes have a much different architecture than heart arteries and that some fats might protect brain arteries even if they clog arteries in the heart The new Harvard study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association followed 832 initially fat fewer strokes New study weighs fats are most healthflil Experts say the finding does not mean it is safe to indulge in high-fat foods or a fatty holiday meal which can temporarily reduce the flexibility of blood vessels and might precipitate a heart attack Rather they said the study suggests that the Mediterranean diet which is not low in total fat but contains little saturated fat and focuses instead on monounsaturated olive oil fruits and vegetables might healthy middle-aged men in Framingham Mass for 18 to 22 years During the followup period the men who were eating the highest fat diets in the late 1960s were least likely to suffer a clot-caused stroke while those consuming the lowest amount of fat had the highest stroke risk The association between high fat intake and low stroke risk was found for total fat saturated fat and monounsaturated fat but not ftp poly From Our Press Ssrvlcee A long-term study has found that men who eat more fat including more saturated fat are less likely than men on lower-fat diets to suffer a stroke The finding supported by two prior studies in Japan and Hawaii as well as by experiments in laboratory rats is the latest conflicting report about how much and what kinds of.