NICHOLS hearing delayed again

Tuesday, June 5th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ For the third time in as many weeks, a state court hearing for Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols has been postponed as authorities await delivery of newly discovered FBI files.

District Judge Ray Dean Linder said Tuesday that the hearing, scheduled for Wednesday, was postponed indefinitely to allow more time for federal authorities to deliver more than 4,400 documents involving the bombing investigation.

``I don't know that any has yet been obtained,'' Linder said following a telephone conference with prosecutors and defense attorneys in the case.

Linder postponed Nichols' May 21 preliminary hearing after the FBI revealed that it had failed to deliver the documents to prosecutors in the federal trials of Nichols and convicted bomber Timothy McVeigh.

A new date for Nichols' preliminary hearing has not been set.

Nichols is charged with 160 state counts of first-degree murder for the April 19, 1995, federal building bombing that killed 168 people and injured more than 500. State prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty.

A federal jury convicted Nichols, 46, on federal involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy charges and he was sentenced to life in prison.

McVeigh was convicted on federal murder charges and sentenced to death.