Against Advice, Daughter Takes Stand in Mom’s Murder Trial : Court: Nicole Samuels Moroianu is called an unindicted co-conspirator in alleged plots that snuffed lives of stepfather and former fiance.

VAN NUYS —  Aware of the risks and against the advice of her lawyer, Nicole Samuels Moroianu took the witness stand Wednesday in Van Nuys Superior Court and began testifying on behalf of her mother, who stands accused of orchestrating two murders.

Prosecutors said Moroianu herself is up to her neck in a twisted tale of two murders allegedly motivated by the greed of her mother, Mary Ellen Samuels.

Moroianu, the mother of a small son, is an unindicted co-conspirator in alleged murder-for-hire plots that snuffed the lives of her stepfather and her former fiance, prosecutor Jan Maurizi said. Moroianu previously has refused to testify, invoking her constitutional right against self-incrimination.

But during a brief hearing Wednesday, Moroianu, 24, said she was ready to tell all.

“Her sole motivating factor in this case is that she wants to do anything she can to help her mom,” said Moroianu’s attorney, Alex Kessel. “It was my advice that she not testify. But for the mother-daughter relationship, she probably would have adhered to my advice.”

Samuels, 45, received about $500,000 in insurance and real estate proceeds after her husband, motion picture camera operator Robert Samuels, was slain. She is accused of hiring out the slaying of the original hit man, cocaine dealer Robert Bernstein, 27, when he threatened to cooperate with police.

Prosecution witnesses, including many of Moroianu’s high school friends, have testified that she asked them to help her find a gun so she and her mother could kill Samuels, the stepfather who Nicole claimed had molested her. They said she helped her mother seek out a hit man among her circle of friends. And they said she was engaged to two men at the same time, including Bernstein, the alleged hit man.

At the very least, Moroianu faces scathing cross-examination and probing questions about her drug use and personal life. At most, prosecutors have warned, she could face perjury or murder-conspiracy charges in connection with the December, 1988, shotgun slaying of Samuels and the June, 1989, beating and strangulation of Bernstein.

Still, Moroianu said outside the courtroom that she is motivated by a force more powerful than fear--a daughter’s love for her mother, who faces the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder.

“I love her and I’m always going to be there for her,” she said. “Always.”

Moroianu said her mother did nothing wrong. She said she is testifying to dispute “lies” former friends told about them during prosecution testimony.

“They are just a bunch of liars who used her,” Moroianu said. “I guess my mom’s a glutton for punishment. I was young. Friends come and go when you’re that age. But my mom’s friends . . .” she stopped in mid-sentence and just shook her head.

She admitted being engaged to Bernstein, but said she was never “serious” about him. “It was just a fluke, an immature thing,” she said.

Questioned by her mother’s attorney, Phil Nameth, Moroianu testified for just under an hour Wednesday, beginning to describe the complex web of relationships spun around the bizarre death plots. She admitted her own daily cocaine habit, beginning when she was 16. She said Bernstein kept her supplied but never charged her for the drug.

Her testimony resumes today.