own drug dealing. and you didn t see a clear path out of the hell in which you were living even before brian nichols came to your door. so, at one point in that evening, while he s got your captive in your own home, the topic turned to drugs. did you offer him drugs? or did he ask you for them? he actually asked me if i had any drugs in my apartment that night. i think he actually asked me for marijuana. i was in the middle of a crystal meth addiction. i had done meth the night before all of this happened. i had some leftover. i put it in a place that would be very obvious to him. so when he said do you have any drugs, i told him yeah. i didn t want him to find them and realize that i had lied to him. did he have you walk over to the drugs? he said set it up for me.
wasn t in control. and neither was brian nichols. jesus was in control chd and the rest of the night was going to be the way he wanted it to be. including that one, there s some stunning momentings when the night went on, including a couple opportunities to ablg which youly escape. there was a time he let you go to the bathroom and what was in the bathroom? the guns. and instead, you return them when he banged on the door and said give them back. was that a conscious effort to build trust? or was it just a fear of well, for me, it was just a fear because i had never really used a guchb before. i thought to myself, if i pick up these guns and try toe use them, i ll probably wind up doing some damage to me. there was another opportunity where he convinced you to help him hide the get aid way car.
deuced the book, a purpose-driven life to you. it actually did have a effect. for me, i needed an answer to that question. as a matter of fact, as i sats in churj that day, i began to thank god. i don t even nope why i m here. i shouldn t be here. i m not worthy of being here. i want my life to change, but i don t know how of. i m in this place to where i just get up and do druggings. it s not because i want to, it s just a way of life. that s what i do to survive and i want to change. right about that time, the pastor said the church is going to be reading this book. if you want one, they re so and so many and if you don t have the money, just get one anyway. so i picked it up and started to read it. what made you pull it out and start reading it to brian nichols that night?
steal her gun in the process. nichols would kill two more people why in that courthouse. and two more on the run. then he crossed pathds with ashly smith. tonight, ashly sits down with the kelly file to describe exactly what unfolded in her apartment that night. how the choices she made may have saved her life and why she thinks nichols chose to end the man hunt the way he did. we will also hear from heraldo rivera. but first, trace gal ager takes us back to that dramatic day.
in the moment were you conscious of that, that presence? did you feel that presence or did you just feel a strong instinct probably for first time to say no? no, i felt the presence of god telling me, you know what? this is it. you can choose the old life or you can choose the new life. and i will give it to you. like i said, i didn t know if i was going to make it out of there alive. i didn t know if it would be five minutes of a new life or 50 years of a new life. but as soon as i chose not to do those drugs, it was just a sense of freedom for me. physically i was still being held captive, but i realized that ashley smith wasn t in control and neither was brian nichols, but that jesus was in control. and the rest of the night was going to be the way he wanted it to be. ashley says the story of her kidnapping and what happened in that apartment is a story of