Ex-Hostage Says She Gave Meth to Captor

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Associated Press
Wednesday, September 28, 2005

ATLANTA, Sept. 27 -- Ashley Smith, the woman who says she persuaded suspected courthouse gunman Brian Nichols to release her by talking about her faith, discloses in a new book that she gave him methamphetamine during the hostage ordeal.

Smith did not share that detail with authorities at the time. But investigators said she came clean about the drugs when they interviewed her months later. They said they have no plans to charge her with drug possession.

In her book, "Unlikely Angel," released Tuesday, Smith says Nichols bound her on her bed with masking tape and an extension cord. She says that he asked for marijuana, but that she did not have any, and that she dug into her illegal stash of crystal meth instead.

Smith, 27, says the seven-hour hostage ordeal in March led to the realization that she was a drug addict. She says she has not used drugs since the night before she was taken captive.