Man Denies Killing for Inheritance : Slaying: The defendant testifies that witnesses are lying when they say he murdered his 70-year-old grandfather.

A struggling actor and musician accused of killing his grandfather for financial gain testified Wednesday that he had nothing to do with the murder and that his accusers had lied.

Responding to a series of questions from the prosecutor, defendant Noel P. Scott, 28, repeatedly denied murdering 70-year-old Louis Fox, who was slain Oct. 16, 1983, in the bedroom of Fox’s North Hollywood house.

“You went to the night stand and you got the gun out?” Deputy Dist. Atty. Sidney D. Trapp Jr. asked Scott during sometimes heated cross-examination.

“No sir,” Scott answered.

“And when you got to the old man’s head, you shot the old man three times with a .32-caliber revolver?” Trapp asked.

“No sir,” Scott said.

“I have no idea what happened there that night. I wasn’t there.”

Scott of Hollywood, who took the witness stand in his own defense Wednesday in the trial in San Fernando Superior Court, said he was at a Hollywood dance club when Fox was killed.

Trapp has said that Scott killed his grandfather to inherit Fox’s Milbank Street house and steal $20,000 in jewelry. The prosecutor said Scott wanted to impress his girlfriend, who he said was becoming frustrated with her boyfriend’s difficulties finding work as an actor.

The case went unsolved for five years until Charles Berkowitz, a boyhood friend of Scott’s, told police that Scott confessed the killing to him a few days after it happened. Berkowitz later testified that he lied about the confession to get favorable treatment after a burglary arrest, but maintained he was telling the truth when he told police in 1983 that Scott asked him how to beat a lie-detector test and alter fingerprints.

Police said they did not offer Berkowitz favorable treatment, and he was sentenced to the maximum term of three years in prison for the burglary, despite his statement.

On Wednesday, Scott said the entire statement was a lie, and that it was Berkowitz, not Scott, who broached the subject of beating a lie-detector test four days after the shooting.

Scott also denied telling his ex-girlfriend that he expected to inherit the bulk of his grandfather’s estate and that he planned to marry her.

“You’re saying everyone is lying?” Trapp asked Scott on Wednesday.

“Yes,” Scott replied.