Opening Statement in Case of Slain Detective : Accused Did Not Kill, Defense Insists

Daniel S. Jenkins had no motive to kill a Los Angeles police detective, his attorney told a Van Nuys Superior Court jury in an opening statement Wednesday.

The crime was committed by someone else, maintained Howard R. Price, Jenkins’ attorney. Price promised jurors he would show them who the killer is during the next six months of the trial.

Detective Thomas C. Williams, 42, was gunned down Oct. 31, 1985, hours after he testified against Jenkins at his robbery trial. Prosecutors have called the slaying an act of vengeance.

But Price said killing Williams would not have prevented Jenkins’ conviction in that case, which stemmed from the October, 1984, armed robbery of a North Hollywood theater manager.

“He was a minor witness,” Price said. “Had Thomas Williams never testified, nothing in the case would have changed.”

Jenkins, 32, and his co-defendant, Ruben A. (Tony) Moss, 26, are charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder in Williams’ slaying. Both could be sentenced to death if convicted.

Jenkins also is charged with attempted murder in the shooting of the theater manager, George Carpenter, in July, 1985.

The detective, who worked in the department’s North Hollywood division, was struck several times by automatic-pistol fire as he picked up his 6-year-old son from the Faith Baptist Church and day-care center in Canoga Park.

The only witnesses to the slaying described the gunman as white or Hispanic, Price said. Jenkins is black.

Price said he will try to discredit the prosecution’s five main witnesses by showing that four of them were accomplices in a plot to murder Williams and were granted immunity for their testimony.

Jenkins, who is in custody, was not in court Wednesday. Price refused to comment on his absence.