Son of Oklahoma City bomber going to court Friday

Published Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008 | 7 p.m.

Updated Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008 | 12:38 p.m.

Metro Police

Joshua Issac Nichols

The son of Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols is scheduled to appear in court Friday in Las Vegas on charges of grand larceny and possession of stolen property.

Metro Police arrested 26-year-old Joshua Isaac Nichols on Tuesday night after he was spotted by the Viper Task Force. Police said he was in possession of a stolen 2008 Yamaha motorcycle.

Nichols was taken to the Clark County Detention Center, where he is being held on $3,200 bail on both charges, according to detention center records.

His first court hearing is scheduled for Friday, a courthouse spokesman said.

The latest arrest of Joshua Nichols is not the first time he has run afoul of the law, court records indicate. In 2006 he was acquitted of attempted murder charges after a 2005 incident involving two Metro Police officers. However, he was sentenced to 19 to 48 months in prison for assault with a deadly weapon, resisting an officer, battery of an officer and possessing a stolen vehicle during that same incident.

Joshua Nichols's father is serving a life sentence for his role in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people.

In June 1997, a federal jury convicted Timothy McVeigh of bombing the Oklahoma City federal building, considered a domestic terrorist attack. McVeigh received the death penalty.

Terry Nichols, McVeigh's Army buddy who was tried on the same 11 counts, wasn't convicted of murder after a jury deliberated 41 hours and brought a verdict in on Dec. 23, 1997. Instead, the jury found him guilty of involuntary manslaughter and of conspiring with McVeigh.

Nichols escaped the death penalty because the jury didn't reach a unanimous verdict on whether he was planning an attack "with the intent to kill." Nearly six months later, Terry Nichols was sentenced by a federal judge to spend the rest of his life in prison.

Josh Nichols and mother were living in Las Vegas at the time.