Ashley Smith Robinson was only 29 years old when she went through a night of terror in her life with a spree killer. Now 49 and a grandmother to her 11-month-old grandson, Ashley was still healing from the 2001 murder of her husband in 2005.
Following the devastating event, she turned to substances, using meth to numb her pain, when she met Brian Nichols. However, little did she know that the encounter would change her life forever.
Nichols, who escaped the Fulton County courthouse, overpowered a sheriff’s deputy and went on a killing spree. The man brutally took the lives of Judge Rowland Barnes, 46, Deputy Hoyt Teasley, 43, 46-year-old court reporter Julie Brandau, and off-duty ICE agent David Wilhelm, 40.
Speaking about the incident to PEOPLE, Ashley recalled that before meeting Nichols, she was already aware of what he was up to. At her waitressing job earlier that afternoon she came across some cops and asked if he had been apprehended yet. The police officers consoled her, “Don’t worry about him. He’s probably in Alabama by now.”
However, things turned different when, after her shift, Robinson was unpacking her boxes at her new apartment and decided to go out for a pack of cigarettes. At the gas station, she saw a truck with someone sitting inside, and she instantly felt a “weird” gut feeling about it.
Minutes later, as she was approaching a car door, Ashley heard footsteps behind her. When she turned around, she saw a man standing with a gun pointing at her. It didn’t take her long to realize who the man was. “I won’t hurt you if you do everything I say,” Nichols removed his hat and told her.
The then-29-year-old woman gathered all of her courage and composure to engage in a conversation with the former college football player. She shared about her life and asked about it in exchange.
“He sounded crazy and felt extremely judged— which was how I was feeling at that point in my life. “So I tried to talk to him about all the things I would want people to ask me to make him feel a little more human.”
Nichols then asked her if she had any marijuana, and she told him that she had some meth on her. Although Ashley didn’t, the man snorted some lines, and she took this opportunity to have a more heart-to-heart conversation with him.
Brian Nichols escaped Court after killing 3 inc a Judge in #Atlanta in ’05. He was #1 on the FBI most wanted list & free for 3 days
Was caught on 📅 he was 33 y 3 m 3 d old
Got final sentence on 📅 he was 444 m 4 d old
Same 📅 one victim would have been 50 y 5 m 5 d old pic.twitter.com/8FHcEuBXt2
— ZENofMAKAVELI (@ZenOfMakaveli) April 17, 2024
“I just started praying and having a spiritual conversation with him,” she told PEOPLE. The grandmother to an 11-month-old then made some pancakes for the man and even read him from The Purpose Driven Life, a book that had been helping her recover from her husband’s death.
Ashley reveals that when Nichols turned to her asking what he should do, she simply said, “You have to turn yourself in.”
“We all have to pay for the things we’ve done, and I’m paying for my mistakes right now because I don’t have my daughter. It’s one of the most painful things I’ve ever been through.”
Her words of light worked like a magic charm on him. After their bizarre encounter, Ashley called the police, hopped on her car, and sped off while Brian stayed behind in her apartment. He was then apprehended by SWAT teams.
Ashely was hailed a hero for helping in the re-capture of Brian Nichols. However, that’s not all, as 20 years later, she revealed that the incident completely changed her life. She finally held onto her sobriety, became an X-ray and CT technician, and even started a new life with her former boyfriend, Daniel Robinson.
The mother of three confessed, “If this had never happened, there’s no doubt in my mind I’d be dead from an overdose or from getting involved with the wrong people.”
This bittersweet night remains a core part of her journey. “Four people lost their lives. Families lost husbands, wives, and fathers. But it gave my children a mother, it gave my husband a wife, and it gave me an opportunity to share God’s love with millions of people.”
The 2015 film Captive starring Kate Mara is based on Ashley’s encounter with Nichols and her heroic move.
“I’m grateful for where I am now,” Ashley, 49, continues to attribute her life to that night.
