ATLANTA-
The man accused of killing four people in a rampage that began as he appeared in court for a rape case plotted an escape from jail and recently tried to intimidate the woman he is suspected of assaulting, prosecutors said in papers filed Friday.
An emergency motion filed by prosecutors asks that Brian Nichols be ordered not to intimidate witnesses. It also alleges that he has had access to a cell phone from his jail cell and asks that he be barred from contact with other inmates.
Prosecutors asked a judge to order the Fulton County sheriff to explain at an emergency hearing Saturday or at the first available opportunity how Nichols’ security at the jail is handled.
Sgt. Nikita Hightower, a sheriff’s department spokeswoman, said she had not heard about the filing and could not comment.
Three of Nichols’ lawyers did not immediately return calls Friday.
Nichols is accused of grabbing a deputy’s gun at the courthouse, where he was being tried on rape charges, and killing a judge, court reporter and a sheriff’s deputy in March 2005. He is also accused of killing a federal agent he encountered at a home a few miles from the courthouse.
Police said Nichols also took a woman hostage in her suburban Atlanta apartment but surrendered the next day.
Prosecutors say that on Thursday night, Nichols called the woman he is accused of raping. She told prosecutors she hung up after hearing the call was from Nichols, the papers say.
“I felt that the phone call was inappropriate and was shocked that I received it,” the woman said, according to the motion. “It made me feel uneasy.”
The woman told authorities Nichols had made threats to her in the past, the document says.
“Brian Nichols indicated to me on the date he raped me … that if I turned him in that he would haunt me and my family,” the woman told authorities, according to the motion. “I felt the phone call was a continuation of this type of threatening mentality.”
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in the courthouse shooting case. Nichols’ murder trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 11.
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