Letter was shocking, Nichols' ex-wife testifies

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) -- Terry Nichols' former wife, Lana Padilla, testified that she was shocked by a sealed letter he gave her nearly five months before the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people.
The letter included instructions on how to distribute Nichols' belongings if he died during a 1994 trip to the Philippines, told her how to enter a storage unit in nearby Henderson, Nev., and what to do with its contents. The two divorced in 1988.
Padilla testified Tuesday about the letter and her eight-year marriage to Nichols at his state murder trial. Her testimony was to resume when Nichols' trial resumes today.
Nichols is on trial on state murder charges that could bring the death penalty for his part in the April 19, 1995, blast at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. His lawyers maintain that he was set up to take the fall for the bombing.
Padilla said she followed the instructions in the letter and pried off the back of a kitchen drawer, where she found a package containing $20,000 in cash. She also went to the storage shed and found camping gear, bullion coins and a cigar box containing jade that prosecutors say was stolen from Arkansas gun collector Roger Moore as part of a plan to finance the bombing.
Padilla said she was stunned by the items' $38,000 value, adding that Nichols never paid child support and she thought he lived in poverty.
Also in the package was a letter addressed to executed killer Timothy McVeigh, instructing him to clear out two storage units, including one in Council Grove., Kan., that prosecutors have said were used to store components for the bomb that destroyed the Oklahoma City federal building.
Also Tuesday, an FBI fingerprint examiner said he mistakenly testified earlier in the week that he had found Nichols' prints on a piece of evidence in the bombing case.
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