‘Twilight Zone’ Prosecutor Says She Would Have Filed Murder Charges

The prosecutor in the “Twilight Zone” manslaughter trial said in court Wednesday that she would have charged director John Landis with second-degree murder if she had filed the case stemming from the deaths of actor Vic Morrow and two child actors.

“Frankly, I wish second-degree murder charges were involved here,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Lea Purwin D’Agostino, who was assigned last November to handle the trial of Landis and four associates. “I believe if I had been the district attorney, I would have in fact charged (Landis with) second-degree murder.”

Her remarks came during a hearing on the fourth anniversary of the fiery helicopter crash that took the lives of Morrow and Vietnamese immigrant children Renee Chen, 6, and Myca Dinh Lee, 7.

D’Agostino was responding to comments by defense attorneys in court concerning her contention that Landis and two co-defendants had conspired to hire the two children without state permits because of the dangers involved in filming the helicopter sequence.

If D’Agostino believed that there was a conspiracy to endanger the children, asked one defense attorney, why weren’t murder charges filed in the case?

“I was not the district attorney who was initially involved (in the case),” D’Agostino later told the court.

Her statements were supported outside of court by Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Gilbert I. Garcetti, who called D’Agostino a well respected prosecutor and said, “I certainly stand by her evaluation of the case.”

Landis’ attorney, James Neal, called D’Agostino’s remarks “absurd and outrageous,” and added, “but nothing surprises me about statements she makes.”

According to D’Agostino, the tougher charges--which could carry a prison term of 15 years to life, compared to a four-year maximum for involuntary manslaughter--could not be filed at this point without dismissing the case and starting over.

Jury selection is due to begin today for Landis, special effects coordinator Paul Stewart and helicopter pilot Dorcey A. Wingo, who are accused of involuntary manslaughter as a result of alleged criminal negligence. Landis, along with associate producer George Folsey Jr. and unit production manager Dan Allingham, are also charged with two counts of manslaughter for allegedly endangering the children’s lives.

In a crucial ruling on trial motions Wednesday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Roger Boren ruled that D’Agostino can present evidence to the jury based on hearsay statements by the defendants. Among those statements is one attributed to Folsey before the helicopter crash in which he said that he and others would probably be thrown into jail for hiring the children without state permits.

Boren, however, ruled that the jury cannot hear evidence on the use of live ammunition during the shooting of a scene involving Morrow a couple days before the crash.

D’Agostino had contended that a decision to fire real bullets into banana plants rather than using special effects demonstrated Landis’ intent “to achieve absolute realism at any cost.”

During the trial, she said, she intends to call film director and former child star Jackie Cooper--who has served on the safety committee of the Directors Guild of America--to testify that the use of live ammunition on film sets ended before World War II.

Boren, however, agreed with the defense that it would prove prejudicial to cite previous acts of alleged carelessness to help show that the defendants were careless later.