After learning a verdict had been reached, motorists started honking their horns. Government prosecutors claimed that Nichols and McVeigh used the same pre-paid phone cards in their attempts to find bomb ingredients. They contended, too, that Nichols robbed an Arkansas gun dealer who knew McVeigh, taking guns and other valuables to help finance the attack. Nichols was accused of stealing dynamite and blasting caps from a quarry near the Kansas farm where he worked, and storing the materials in sheds rented under a fictitious name. Prosecutors said a sales receipt for one of the purchases was found in Nichols' home after the bombing.
Prosecutors believe the fertilizer was mixed with fuel oil and packed into barrels to make the bomb.
Government witnesses testified they saw a Ryder truck and a pickup resembling Nichols' parked not far from his Herington, Kansas, home at a lake where prosecutors say the bomb was built. Nor did the prosecution present any witnesses who claimed to have heard Nichols say he wanted to blow up anything, as was the case with McVeigh. Nichols' lawyers presented witnesses who said they saw McVeigh with a dark-skinned man before and after the bombing. They also introduced a letter they said McVeigh wrote to an Arizona man, attempting to enlist him in his cause. The letter included an apparent reference to Nichols, whom he scorned for abandoning the cause to take care of his family.