Atlanta shootings suspect calm in court

Video: Crime & courts

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No jurors in court this week
On Monday, nervous workers and visitors lined up as the Fulton County Courthouse reopened under heightened security.

No jurors were going to be called to the courthouse this week, said Friedly.

With no jurors present, deputies will be able to transport inmates into courtrooms with handcuffs or any other restraints. The law requires that defendants on trial not be handcuffed as they enter the courtroom, to make sure the sight of cuffs doesn’t unfairly influence the jury.

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Convicted felon Richard Jadwin, 20, who was at the courthouse to check in with the sheriff’s department, said he felt uncomfortable being at the building.

“I ain’t even going to lie, I’m kind of nervous,” said Jadwin, who wouldn’t say what crime he was convicted of.

Those who stepped off the elevators in front of the courtroom of Judge Rowland Barnes saw crime scene tape and flowers where Barnes and his court reporter, Julie Brandau, were killed.

Both victims had been working Nichols’ trial. Sheriff’s Sgt. Hoyt Teasley was killed outside the courthouse, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent David Wilhelm was killed later.

Judge: Ordeal was 'preventable'
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Monday that a courthouse surveillance camera recorded Nichols’ initial surprise attack on Deputy Cynthia Hall but that no one in the control center noticed the assault.

“It’s not just horrible, it was preventable,” Senior Superior Court Judge Philip Etheridge told the newspaper.

A video camera that is supposed to be monitored by two guards in a command post shows Nichols lunging at Hall and knocking her backward, according to a law enforcement official who saw the tape.

Etheridge said Hall, a petite 51-year-old, should not have been alone with Nichols, a former college linebacker who had been found with two sharpened door hinges in his socks earlier in the week.

Hall was in stable condition on Tuesday.

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