Posted: 09/16/2015 at 5:05pm | IP Logged

Ashley Smith Talks About How God Helped Her Survive Her ‘Chance Encounter’ With Murderer, Brian Nichols, And Gave Her A ‘Purpose Driven Life’

By Dan Wooding, Founder of the ASSIST News Service

ATLANTA, GA (ANS – September 16, 2015) -- A little over a decade after Brian Nichols’ murderous rampage left four people dead, others injured and a city gripped with fear, the movie “Captive,” which is being released on Friday (September 18, 2015), depicts his chance and key encounter with Ashley Smith, a widowed young mother in Atlanta, Georgia.

Ashley, who at the time, was at all-time low in her life, after having lost her first husband to drug-related violence – he died in her arms -- and her young daughter Paige was staying with her aunt while she is trying to get her act together.

One that fateful night, she decides on a late-night cigarette run as Nichols, having fatally shot Judge Rowland W. Barnes, court reporter Julie Ann Brandau, Fulton County Sheriff’s Deputy Sgt. Hoyt Teasley and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent David G. Wilhelm, pulls into her apartment parking lot in a stolen car.

“Nichols was on trial for rape when he shot his way out of the Fulton County Courthouse in downtown Atlanta on March 11, 2005. He overpowered and savagely beat Fulton County Sheriff’s Deputy Cynthia Hall, then used her gun to kill Barnes, Brandau and Teasley before fleeing. He chanced upon Wilhelm and killed the off-duty federal agent at his home before making his way to Gwinnett County and, serendipitously, Smith’s apartment,” said a story in the Atlantic Journal-Constitution.

In a desperate bid to try and get her life back on track, she had been studying Rick Warren’s best-selling book, The Purpose Driven Life, and she asked Nichols if she could read chapters of it to him. Surprisingly, he agreed and slowly, but surely, she gained his trust, talked to him about God’s redemptive power and persuaded him to surrender peacefully the next morning.

As a result of her near death experience with the killer, Ashley gave her life back to Christ, walked away from her drug habit that had held her captive for so long, and has now remarried. She is now known as Ashley Smith Robinson and has also regained custody of her daughter, Paige, and she and her husband have a son, Cole, who is just 4.

She now lives in the Augusta area, where she works as an X-ray technician at a hospital there.

As she says, “It’s never too late to turn your life around.”

The movie, which was filmed in Charlotte, N.C., and Mexico City, and stars Kate Mara (as Ashley) and Nigerian-born British actor, David Oyelowo, who played the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in last year’s “Selma,” (as Nichols,) focuses on what happens during the hours Nichols held her captive. It is based on Ashley Smith’s memoir “Unlikely Angel.” The screenplay was by Hollywood veteran, Brian Bird, who attends Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California.

I have just recorded an extraordinary 17-minute audio interview with Ashley Smith Robinson, which I am making available, for immediate broadcast, to media outlets around the world. It is in an MP3 audio file that I can send to you if you will send me an e-mail at assistnews@aol.com requesting it and letting me know who you represent.

In return, I am requesting that you send a donation to ASSIST and I’ll give you more information about it, after I receive your message. This will help us continue with our work.

Photo caption: 1) Ashley Smith Robinson with her kids Paige and Cole. (Photo: Jennifer Brett) 2)“Captive,” opening Friday, Sept. 18, stars David Oyelowo, as Fulton County courthouse shooter Brian Nichols, and Kate Mara as Ashley Smith, his hostage for a number of hours. Photo: Paramount Pictures. 3) Dan Wooding recording his radio show.

Source: Assist News Service