OKLAHOMA CITY ? The former wife of Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols testified Monday that she was surprised to discover several months before the bombing that he had amassed thousands of dollars in cash and supplies.

“I thought he was broke,” Lana Padilla said.

She testified that when he went on a trip to the Philippines in late 1994, she discovered he had left $20,000 in $100 bills in a bag behind a drawer in her house. He also left a key to a storage facility where she found gold bullion, camping gear, a ski mask, makeup and a wig, among other things.

The testimony came in the first day of a preliminary hearing that will determine whether there is enough evidence to try Nichols in state court on 160 counts of first-degree murder.

Prosecutors allege Nichols participated in a series of robberies and thefts to raise money to carry out the April 19, 1995, bombing.

State District Judge Allen McCall warned Padilla to testify truthfully after she denied or said she couldn’t recall earlier statements she made to the FBI. One of those statements described Nichols as an antigovernment, secretive survivalist.

“It’s my opinion that you are being evasive and not truthful with your answers,” the judge told her.

Death penalty sought

Nichols, 48, was previously convicted on federal conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter charges for the deaths of eight law enforcement officers in the bombing, which killed 168 people. The state charges involve victims who were not part of Nichols’ federal trial.

Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty and say a state conviction is needed to eliminate the possibility that he could ever successfully appeal his federal case and gain freedom. They met twice this year with Nichols’ attorney in attempts to settle the case, but no settlement was reached.

Lana Padilla, the ex-wife of Terry Nichols, is shown in an artist drawing as she testifies at a preliminary hearing in Oklahoma City. Her evidence Monday will help determine whether Nichols will be tried for 160 counts of first-degree murder in the April 19, 1995, bombing at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

Nichols called former Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker’s office two days before the bombing to complain about the deadly end of the Branch Davidian standoff in Texas, an aide to the former senator testified.

“He was very stern and told us about his thinking on the matter,” said Lee Ellen Alexander, who worked for the former Kansas senator.

She said Nichols also complained about gun laws and former Atty. Gen. Janet Reno. Alexander heard days later that Nichols, who was living in Kansas at the time, was a suspect in the bombing, which came on the second anniversary of the fiery end of the Branch Davidian siege in Waco, Texas.

“Oh, my God, I was literally surprised and shocked,” she said.

Another witness, Sheryl Pankratz, who works at the court clerk’s office in Marion, Kan., testified that in March 1994 a man who identified himself as Terry Nichols turned in a document at the office that renounced his U.S. citizenship.

Prosecutors allege Nichols and Timothy McVeigh worked together to prepare a 4,000-pound fuel-and-fertilizer bomb that destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

Nichols was at home in Herington, Kan., the day the bomb exploded. But prosecutors accused him of helping McVeigh deliver a getaway car to Oklahoma City and of working with McVeigh to pack the bomb inside a truck the day before.

McVeigh was convicted on federal murder charges. He was executed in June 2001.

Plagued by delays

Legal disputes, including complaints by Nichols’ court-appointed attorneys that his legal bills were not being paid promptly, have postponed seven other preliminary hearing dates. Nichols’ attorneys have been paid about $2.5 million so far.

The hearing could be complicated by revelations, first reported by The Associated Press, that the Justice Department received a letter before McVeigh’s execution suggesting a key prosecution witness against McVeigh had given false testimony.

The letter cites testimony in a civil case from Steven Burmeister, now the FBI lab’s chief of scientific analysis. The testimony contradicted what he said in the McVeigh case about key evidence regarding chemical residue of material used in making the bomb.

Justice Department officials have said they didn’t believe making the letter available would have affected the outcome of McVeigh’s trial. State prosecutors said they had removed Burmeister from their witness list.