Landis to Testify in Surprise ‘Twilight Zone’ Defense Move

In a surprising development Tuesday, attorneys for John Landis said the film director will take the stand today as the first defense witness in the “Twilight Zone” involuntary manslaughter trial.

The announcement was made after Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Roger W. Boren denied a defense motion to summarily dismiss the involuntary manslaughter charges against Landis and four associates.

Until late afternoon, Landis’ lawyers had declined to publicly indicate whether Landis would even take the stand in his own defense during the ongoing trial.

“It’s about time that the jury heard the truth, so we’ve decided to start out with the truth and we’ve decided to get to the heart of the matter and not wander around for lo these many months,” James Neal, Landis’ co-counsel, told reporters later outside court.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Lea Purwin D’Agostino--who rested her case last week after calling 71 witnesses in 71 days of testimony--said outside court that she was “ecstatic,” because she will now be given the opportunity to cross-examine the Hollywood film director.

“They had to start out with something big to try and take away from the devastating impact that’s been left on the jury,” the prosecutor asserted. “ . . . (But) Mr. Landis in the past has made several very, very damaging statements of the type which we were not able to get in (without him testifying).”

Landis, associate producer George Folsey Jr., unit production manager Dan Allingham, helicopter pilot Dorcey A. Wingo and special-effects coordinator Paul Stewart are each accused of involuntary manslaughter in the 1982 film-set deaths of actor Vic Morrow, 53, and two child actors, Renee Chen, 6, and Myca Dinh Lee, 7. The three were killed when a helicopter, struck by the fireball of a special-effects explosion during the filming of a mock Vietnam battle sequence, plummeted from the sky and crashed on them.

In a daylong hearing Tuesday, defense attorneys contended that D’Agostino never proved the specific cause of the accident and said their clients had thought that the scene was safe.

The tragedy occurred, they argued, because a special-effects employee who was not charged with a crime mistakenly set off an explosive before the aircraft was safely out of the way.

However, Boren denied the dismissal motion without comment.

The judge then asked Neal for a list of witnesses for today and Neal answered, “It will be Mr. Landis.”

Outside court, Neal declined to outline what Landis will say. Landis also declined comment.

Other defense lawyers said the decision for Landis to immediately take the stand was not made until after D’Agostino rested her case. In public comments, they praised the strategy. Stewart’s attorney, Arnold L. Klein, for example, called it “a stroke of brilliance” because “John Landis is the one the jury wants to hear from.”

Privately, however, one defense lawyer noted that the strategy was also intended to catch D’Agostino off-guard and could give defense team members a chance to rethink their strategies quickly if Landis’ testimony appears to hurt their cases.

D’Agostino, who has previously told reporters she doubted Landis would testify, said she wasn’t particularly surprised with the announcement.

“I’m sure it’s been very carefully planned out and choreographed,” she said. “ . . . (Landis’) being a script writer etc. etc. . . . one can always find a plausible answer even for the most damaging statements one might have made.”