Woman testifies about placating kidnapper

Ashley Smith Robinson, a former drug addict, told prosecutor Kellie Hill that she had once felt grateful to Nichols for letting her escape unharmed.

Hill asked Robinson if she was still grateful.

"No ma'am," Robinson said. "I am grateful to God."

Robinson's ability to placate Nichols -- and later engineer her escape -- was perhaps the strangest twist in a high-profile drama that played out live on national television in 2005.

Nichols is accused of escaping custody in a Fulton County courthouse, then killing a judge, a sheriff's deputy, a court clerk and a federal agent. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty; Nichols' attorneys argue he is not guilty by reason of insanity.

Robinson took the stand wearing gray slacks and an open-necked magenta blouse. With wide eyes in a narrow face, she seemed earnest and composed as she was called upon, once again, to describe her private struggle with drugs, and the frightening intrusion into her life that convinced her that she needed to kick drugs and recommit to her Christian faith.

"I felt like I had been given another chance at life. . . ," she said. "[I'd been] spared from a lot of danger and I just wanted my life to be different from that point on."

In the early morning of March 12, 2005 -- about 15 hours after escaping the courthouse -- Nichols appeared at Robinson's apartment, police say. He pulled a gun on the then-26-year-old as she walked into her apartment, entering it and binding her with tape and an electrical cord, she testified.

Eventually, he untied her. She gave him drugs, which seemed to calm him. They watched television footage of the mayhem at the courthouse; she said he expressed some remorse for his actions. She read to him from "The Purpose-Driven Life," the Christian self-help book by mega-church pastor Rick Warren.

Around sunrise, Nichols asked Robinson to help him ditch a truck taken from the slain federal agent. She complied. When she said she needed to visit her daughter, he let her leave the apartment. She drove away and called 911.