Terrified of Officer Accused in Three Killings, Hit Man Testifies at Hearing

He had been described in court by an associate as a man who was so open about his “violent nature” that “he seemed to brag about it and take pride in it.” He had admitted being the triggerman in two execution-style murders and the driver in a third--all of them allegedly arranged by Los Angeles Police Officer William E. Leasure.

But when Dennis France took the stand last week as the star witness in Leasure’s preliminary hearing, he meekly portrayed himself as a reluctant killer who lived in terror of the veteran police officer.

“When he (Leasure) said, ‘Do something,’ you do it,” France testified in Los Angeles Municipal Court. “I could either do it or I could be killed myself.”

Slumping in his chair, the 5-foot, 6-inch, 180-pound France also said he was rebuffed when he tried to report the first of the three murders to the district attorney’s office.

Leasure, 40, is accused of conspiring with Arthur Gayle Smith, 55, of Alhambra to have Smith’s wife, Anne, murdered in May, 1980. The officer and Paulette de los Reyes, 44, of Pasadena are also charged with arranging the September, 1981, death of her ex-husband, Antonio de los Reyes.

Leasure is also a suspect in the March, 1977, contract murder of Gilbert Cervantes, the stepfather of Antonio de los Reyes. The alleged triggerman in that killing, Dennis Winebaugh, is awaiting trial, but Leasure has not been charged because of lack of evidence.

In exchange for his testimony, France, 42, has been granted total immunity from prosecution for the murders and other crimes, including a $1.5-million yacht theft ring in which Leasure has also been implicated.

In effort to impeach France’s credibility, the defense got him to admit Thursday that he has occasionally boasted about non-existent murders to serve his own purposes.

He acknowledged, for example, that to sound tough he had once falsely told another witness in the case that he had killed three people as a youth and also had claimed to have shot Paulette de los Reyes.

Under direct examination, France testified that he was drawn into the series of murders by accident when he unwittingly served as the driver for the Cervantes killing.

Winebaugh had told him he planned to “hit somebody” at Leasure’s instructions, but France believed the man would be beaten, not killed, he said.

Alarmed that a death had occurred, France said, he arranged through a friend to meet with a district attorney’s investigator and another police officer in the parking lot of a Chinatown restaurant.

The officers did not believe his story, he said, and dropped the matter. France also said he tried to warn authorities before the two subsequent killings but was unable to speak directly to an investigator.

Deputy Dist. Atty. James E. Koller, who is prosecuting Leasure and his co-defendants, declined to comment on France’s claimed earlier contacts with his office.

Defense attorneys identified the district attorney’s investigator who met with France in 1977 as Alan B. Tomich and said Glendale Police Officer Mike Post was also present. Tomich would not comment. Post said: “To date I have had no contact with or involvement with this prosecution. That’s all I feel it would be proper to say at this time.”

Said He Was Paid $3,500

France said he took over the hit man’s role for Leasure after Winebaugh moved to Oklahoma. He said he was paid $3,500 for killing Anne Smith by shooting her once in the back in what appeared to be a robbery of the beauty salon where she worked.

“(Leasure) told me he had a friend who was . . . going through a divorce and was going to be taken to the cleaners,” France said.

Several times, he testified, he came close to killing her, but each time he pulled back. “Bill would call; I would make excuses on why I didn’t do it,” he testified. Eventually, he said, Leasure told him the woman “had to be killed that day.”

Leasure served as the driver, the witness testified.

France said he made similar attempts to head off the De los Reyes killing, even going so far as to miss his target on purpose during a drive-by shooting.

Finally, France--again accompanied by Leasure, he said--confronted De los Reyes outside the Sherman Oaks lounge where he had been performing as a bass player and shot him once in he head.

“I really didn’t want to kill him,” France testified. “I thought I’d missed him.” He said Leasure promised to pay him $5,000, but he only received $1,000.

The preliminary hearing, now in its second week, is expected to conclude early this week.