Son of Oklahoma City bombing co-conspirator sentenced to Nevada prison for Vegas-area robbery

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The troubled son of imprisoned Oklahoma City bombing co-conspirator Terry Nichols was sentenced Wednesday to prison in Nevada for kidnapping and armed robbery in a February 2020 attack on a man in the Las Vegas area.

Joshua Isaac Nichols and a co-defendant, George William Moya III, each took plea deals in March that avoided trial that could have resulted in longer sentences. Moya’s guilty plea was to armed robbery. Each was sentenced separately by Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny to their agreed-upon sentences.

Nichols and Moya were convicted of luring a 67-year-old jeweler to a vacant home in suburban Henderson and robbing him at gunpoint of cash, jewelry, clothing and a cellphone.

Nichols, 40, declined to speak to the judge before he was sentenced to five to more than 17 years in prison.

Moya, 27, apologized to the court and said he took responsibility for his actions before he was sentenced to four to 15 years.

Each man received about three years’ credit for time already spent in jail, and they were ordered to pay a combined $5,100 in restitution to the man they robbed.

Nichols’ plea deal allowed him to post $50,000 bail to be released from jail for 13 weeks on high-level electronic monitoring pending his sentencing. His lawyer, Augustus Claus, said it allowed him to spend time with his wife.

On Tuesday, Claus sought a delay in sentencing, citing what he said were medical reasons. The judge on Wednesday rejected that bid, saying the medical records Claus submitted to her showed Nichols was being treated for “minor, not serious” health concerns.

Moya’s attorney, Michael Printy, said outside court he and Moya were satisfied that the judge followed the agreement they made with prosecutors.

Nichols moved with his mother to Las Vegas after she divorced Terry Nichols years before the April 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people.

Terry Nichols, 68, is serving multiple lifetime federal prison sentences without the possibility of parole for helping Timothy McVeigh carry out the bombing. McVeigh was executed in 2001.

Joshua Nichols has been arrested and convicted several times over the years in Nevada, and he previously served prison time for felony convictions dating to 2005 including armed assault, vehicle theft and resisting a police officer. He has in the past acknowledged receiving treatment for drug abuse.