Tales of Contra Ties Cloud Death in Panorama City

Steven Paul Carr, who at one time trained Nicaraguan rebels and later spent time in a Costa Rican prison, was trying to start a new life when he moved into a Panorama City town house a month ago, according to his sister.

“He came out here to start over--to get a job and work and be normal,” said his sister, Linda Nichols of Reseda.

But three weeks later, in the early morning hours of Dec. 13, Carr, 27, walked out of the San Fernando Valley town house where he was staying and died on the driveway.

Carr reportedly was involved in gun-running to Nicaraguan rebels and was a potential witness for a federal inquiry into gun-running. His allegations also were reported to at least one congressional committee that is investigating the Iran- contras scandal.

The cause of his death is still being investigated, but police said they believe that Carr died of a “run-of-the-mill” cocaine overdose and that his death was an accident.

Carr had recounted that in the last two years of his life, he participated in a secret weapons supply flight from Florida to El Salvador, then worked with Nicaraguan rebels in northern Costa Rica before returning to the United States.

At first eager to fight communism in Central America, Carr later wrote in a letter that the U. S. government, including the National Security Council, should be held accountable for its policy of “dirty tricks” in the region.

How much of Carr’s story is true is uncertain. Although Carr provided federal prosecutors with important firsthand knowledge of one weapons shipment, he also made conflicting statements and would have been a “defense lawyer’s dream” on the witness stand, Assistant U.S. Atty. Ana Barnett said in Florida. Barnett would not say if Carr had testified before a federal grand jury in Florida that is investigating gun-running allegations.

Finally, while his sister said Carr wanted to “start over” in California, his former attorney said Carr showed a strong interest in becoming a mercenary again, this time with pro-apartheid forces in South Africa.

The attorney, Gerry Berry of Naples, Fla., said he will “always have my suspicions” about what happened to Carr because of the incredible circumstances unfolding in the Iran-contras arms scandal. But “it would appear there was no foul play,” Berry said.

In response to a question, Berry said he would be surprised but not shocked to learn that Carr is not dead at all but fighting in South Africa. Berry admitted it is a far-fetched possibility that Carr’s death was fabricated for his own protection.

Los Angeles County coroner’s investigators, who are conducting laboratory tests as they try to determine a cause of death, said there is no doubt that Carr is dead.

Told Little to Friends

Although Carr told his story to journalists, federal investigators and elected officials, he revealed little to his sister or friends, they said.

“I’m his sister, so he didn’t tell me anything that he thought was going to upset me,” Linda Nichols said. “I really don’t know what he was involved in.”

“He wanted to forget the whole thing, but he was scared,” said Carr’s friend and landlord, Jackie Scott.

Carr, who sometimes worked as a carpenter, feared for his life and said he had received threats from people who did not want him to testify and threats from others who did want him to testify, Scott said.

“Every light in the house was kept on,” and he constantly checked to make sure the doors were locked, said Scott, who described her friend as a “recreational” cocaine user.

When Carr lived with her in Burbank for two months in 1984, he was outgoing, even boisterous, but he often talked of his desire to fight in Costa Rica, Scott said. Later, she realized how serious he was, she said.

Beth Hawkins, a reporter for the Tico Times, an English-language weekly newspaper in San Jose, Costa Rica, said she was with reporters who interviewed Carr on several occasions.

‘Extremely Paranoid’

“He was an extremely paranoid individual,” Hawkins said in an interview. “His big rap on coming down here was that his brother got to go to Vietnam and he didn’t and that he came down to fight communists.”

Carr’s brother, Edward Carr of Brandon, Vt., could not be reached for comment.

Steven Carr said in numerous accounts that he first went to Costa Rica and contacted the contras in 1984 but did not stay then because he could not speak Spanish. But nine months later, in March, 1985, he said, he returned on a secret weapons supply flight from Florida to the Ilopango military airport in El Salvador. Included in the shipment were .50-caliber machine guns and mortars provided by Cuban exile groups in Miami, according to the liberal International Center for Development Policy in Washington.

The center has been gathering information on weapons shipments to the contras at the request of Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), who has been investigating contra gun-running for the past year, said Lindsay Mattison, director of the center.

Jack Terrell, a former mercenary in Central America who now works for the center, reported that Carr earlier learned of a plot to blow up the American Embassy in Costa Rica while he was at a Miami hotel where the plot was discussed, Mattison said.

Plans Never Carried Out

The plans were never carried out, Mattison said, but according to Terrell’s report, Carr identified the participants at that meeting, including at least one person who has since been connected to the Iran-contras scandal.

Carr told various journalists and others that he trained contras for five weeks and participated in one combat raid into Nicaragua and several ambushes before he and four other mercenaries were arrested by Costa Rican authorities and charged with possession of explosives and hostile acts against the country.

Nine months after his April, 1985, arrest there, Carr wrote a letter to Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) “concerning the CIA and dirty tricks.” In it, he identified two Americans who, he asserted, directed contra operations in northern Costa Rica.

“To make a long story short, we have been lied to and betrayed by the same people who sponsored us,” Carr wrote. “I understand I deserve anything I get coming, but I also understand the bigger picture of responsibility and accountability which lies with the U.S.A.”

As a postscript, Carr added: “We’ve been 9 months here without being questioned or given a court date--Democracy is a joke here. I hope it isn’t in my country.”

Released After 13 Months

Upon his release on bond after 13 months of imprisonment, Carr fled to the United States but was jailed in Naples, Fla., for violating terms of his parole stemming from a conviction for writing bad checks.

Carr was released from the Naples jail in mid-November. He moved almost immediately to California and rented a room from his friend, Jackie Scott.

A month before his release from the Naples jail, Carr told Gerry Berry, his attorney, that he was visited by individuals who indicated they were from the CIA and who asked if he would like to return to Central America or go instead to South Africa.

Berry said he talked to Carr for the last time about one week before his release and that Carr continued to express strong interest in going to South Africa.

“At that time, he said he really trusted the guy he had talked with, and everything would be fine,” said Berry, who remembered asking, “Why would you want to go to South Africa, where somebody could put a bullet in your back?”

Found in Driveway

On the night of Carr’s death, Scott said, she was awakened by her 23-year-old daughter about 2:30 a.m. and was told that Carr was making a commotion. Scott said Carr then walked out of the town house, and she found him lying in the driveway.

When she asked Carr what happened, he replied, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I paranoided out--I ate it all,” Scott said.

An ambulance was called and police arrived, but Carr died after going into convulsions, she said.

A day after Carr’s death, his sister questioned the importance of her brother’s knowledge about gun-running to Nicaraguan rebels.

“How big a cog could he be?” Nichols asked. “How much could he know?”