SMITH'S NEW CHAPTER

Book Reveals Encounter With Nichols, Life Story

LAWRENCEVILLE -- With a new book on the shelves this week and a fresh
outlook on life, Ashley Smith hardly seems to be the same person she
was seven months ago when she encountered the suspect in the Fulton
County Courthouse shootings, Brian Nichols, and talked him into
surrendering peacefully.

Smith believes the hours she spent with Nichols in her Duluth apartment
in March forced her to face her drug addiction and look to heaven for a
miracle. Now she is focused on promoting her book "Unlikely Angel: The
Untold Story of the Atlanta Hostage Hero," which was co-written by
Stacy Mattingly and released Tuesday. She hopes her story of redemption
will help others realize God has a plan for everyone.

The 27-year-old, who now resides with a family member in Augusta,
appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" on Wednesday. She is booked for
at least eight other nationally televised interviews in coming weeks.

In a startling revelation, Smith writes in the book that she started
abusing crystal methamphetamine shortly after the death of her
husband, Daniel "Mack" Smith, four years ago. While struggling to get
clean and regain custody of her then-5-year-old daughter, Smith moved
to Duluth, got a job waiting tables at a restaurant and attended
classes to become a medical assistant.

Smith says the turning point in her battle with crystal
methamphetamine, or "ice," came on March 11, when Nichols confronted
her at 2 a.m. outside her apartment and forced her inside. Nichols was
on the run after a shooting rampage at the Fulton County Courthouse in
Atlanta that left a judge, a court reporter from Snellville and a
deputy dead. Later, police say, Nichols broke into the home of a U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, killing him and stealing
his truck.

Nichols, 33, asked Smith if she had any marijuana he could smoke to
relax, she wrote in her book. She did not, but she offered him some
meth.

In the book, Smith writes, "Suddenly, looking down at my drug pouch, I
realized that I would rather have died in my apartment than have done
those drugs with Brian Nichols. ... I was not going to die tonight and
stand before God, having done a bunch of ice up my nose." Smith claims
she tried to talk Nichols out of doing the meth, but Nichols snorted
some anyway. Smith initially didn't tell police or news media about
offering Nichols the drugs, but she confessed it to investigators
later, said Detective S.K. Shaw of the Gwinnett County Police
Department. Authorities decided not to charge her with methamphetamine
possession because they never found any drugs or paraphernalia in her
apartment, and there was no blood test taken at the time to prove
Nichols had used meth.

Shaw said Smith seemed sincere about her recovery when he interviewed
her several months after the incident.

"Even when I met with her, you could just tell she was a different
person," Shaw said. In the book, Smith also discusses how she
established a personal connection with Nichols. She confided in him
about her husband's death and told Nichols if he killed her, her
6-year-old daughter, Paige, would become an orphan.

Their conversation soon drifted to religion. Smith pulled out a Bible
and read passages from a chapter of Rick Warren's "The Purpose Driven
Life" called "Using What God Gave You."

After a seven-hour ordeal, Smith eventually persuaded her alleged
captor to allow her to leave to see Paige. Nichols surrendered to a
swarm of Gwinnett SWAT team members who responded to Smith's
subsequent 911 call. Nichols pleaded not guilty to multiple charges
related to the shootings in May. He faces the death penalty if convicted.

Smith said Wednesday that she has not communicated with Nichols since
his arrest, but said, "I pray for him."

"I hope he finds God's place for his life, his purpose in life," Smith
said.