Okla. Bomb Conspirator Is Freed

Michael Fortier, the star witness in the Oklahoma City bombing trials, was released from federal prison Friday, a year before his sentence was to end, his attorney said.

Fortier, 37, served about 85 percent of a 12-year sentence. He received a plea deal in which he agreed to testify in the trials of bombing coconspirators Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols.

His attorney, Michael McGuire, said Friday afternoon that he could not say the exact time or location of Fortier's release.

Fortier's release, revealed in letters to bombing victims from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, has been shrouded in secrecy, prompting speculation that he is entering the witness protection program.

He is originally from Kingman, Ariz., and is expected to reunite with his wife, Lori, and their two children, McGuire said.

Maguire said Fortier strengthened the government's prosecution of McVeigh and Nichols and is the only person connected to the bomb plot to apologize and express remorse.

"He got way too much time," Maguire said.

"He's hungry for an opportunity to do something and prove his values and abilities,"

Bombing victims disagreed over whether Maguire's early release was warranted.

Royia Grizzell, who was seriously injured in the blast, said, "If he had enough anger in him to do something like this, now that he's been in prison all these years, I just don't see how a normal person could reform and he wouldn't have any more hatred toward the government."

But Michael Reyes, who lost his father in the bombing, said it's time to move on.

"You pretty much have to accept what people in authority have said about this situation," Reyes said. "And I could get angry about it, but that's not gonna solve anything."

Stephen Jones, who represented McVeigh at his federal bombing trial, said Fortier's sentence seems out of line with the much harsher sentences received by McVeigh and Nichols: McVeigh was convicted on federal murder charges and executed on June 11, 2001. Nichols was convicted of state and federal bombing charges and is serving multiple life prison sentences.

"His own testimony establishes his own culpability and his wife's culpability," Jones said.

At state and federal bombing trials, Fortier testified he received stolen weapons that were sold to finance the bombing, shared money from their sale with McVeigh, handled blasting caps and other explosives and had the same anti-government literature that McVeigh gave Nichols.

Fortier also accompanied McVeigh on a trip where they cased the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building four months before it was bombed on April 19, 1995, killing 168 people and injuring more than 500 others.

Lori Fortier, who was granted immunity and never served prison time, also testified at McVeigh's trial that she laminated a fake driver's license for McVeigh with the name of one of the many aliases he used, Robert Kling.

"I think the investigation was flawed. One of them got away and the other received a much lighter sentence," Jones said.

Brian Hermanson, who defended Nichols at his 2004 murder trial in Oklahoma, said the government's allegations against Fortier and Nichols were not very different. Yet, Nichols was tried on charges that could have led to the death penalty and Fortier was allowed to plead to lesser charges.

However, Aitan Goelman, a Washington attorney who served on the bombing prosecution team, said it is appropriate that Fortier is being freed.

"He has paid his debt to society," Goelman said. "Knowing about a horrible crime and doing nothing to prevent it is on one side, and on the other side of the scale is the tremendous assistance he provided to the government in order to prosecute the guys who actually did the bombing."