Witness Won’t Testify in Trial of Ex-Officer

The murder trial of former Los Angeles police Officer William Leasure took an unexpected turn Wednesday when a key prosecution witness invoked the Fifth Amendment--after complaining to the judge that prosecutors lied and manufactured evidence against him.

Arthur G. Smith, after being convicted three years ago of contracting for the 1980 murder of his wife, Anne, had agreed to testify against Leasure to avoid being sent to the gas chamber. Now that he is appealing his conviction and serving a life sentence without possibility of parole, Smith told Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg he has changed his mind.

“Anything I say will obviously be twisted not to my benefit,” Smith said when warned by the judge that prosecutors may now seek his death. “It really doesn’t matter--life without parole is worse than the death penalty.”