Informant Was Coached, Harris Attorneys Say : Murder case: Lawyers for the convicted killer claim authorities recruited inmate, who gave key testimony at trial. The maneuver is the latest bid to save client from the gas chamber.

Attorneys for Robert Alton Harris, in another try to save the convicted killer from the gas chamber, said Friday they have new evidence backing their claim that authorities improperly recruited and coached a jailhouse informant to testify falsely at Harris’ 1979 trial.

The lawyers asked the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to order a hearing where they could prove the informant acted as a “police agent” and had been planted in Harris’ cell to elicit statements to show Harris murdered his two teen-age victims to prevent them from testifying against him for robbery.

The informant, Joey Dee Abshire, said in an affidavit signed Nov. 7 that investigators--not Harris--provided him with details of the crime. Abshire also disputed testimony by a San Diego sheriff’s sergeant who said he overheard Harris tell Abshire he killed the boys because he “couldn’t have no punks running around that could do that (identify him) so I wasted them.”

But while challenging the sergeant’s version of the conversation, Abshire said in the affidavit --just as he said at the trial--that Harris “told me the boys were killed to prevent them from identifying him.”

The testimony by Abshire and the sergeant were key elements in showing the killings were premeditated and deliberate--rather than impulsive--and thus made Harris eligible for first-degree murder and the death penalty.

State Deputy Atty. Gen. Jay M. Bloom said the new allegations had just been received and were being studied. “It does seem that this is a claim that could have been raised much earlier in a case that’s 12 years old,” Bloom said.

Harris, 37, is seeking a retrial in the murders of John Mayeski and Michael Baker, both 16, in San Diego in 1978. If he loses in his current round of appeals, he could become the first person to be executed in California since restoration of the death penalty in 1977.

The condemned man’s legal team--attorneys Charles M. Sevilla, Michael J. McCabe and Michael Laurence--had contended earlier that Harris had been victimized by Abshire’s role as police agent. But last August a federal appeals panel rejected the claim, citing a lack of sufficient evidence.

In their new motion, Harris’ lawyers said that after extensive investigation they had finally located Abshire and another jailhouse witness. Their new testimony revealed Abshire’s previous statements were “false in several material respects,” they said. Harris, they said, was the victim of a “carefully orchestrated maneuver” by authorities.

The attorneys said that contrary to prosecution claims, investigators had recruited Abshire, advised him of the specific information they needed from Harris, supplied details of the case, coached him on how to testify and then told him to “conceal his role as a state agent.”

Such conduct by officials would violate a defendant’s constitutional rights and invalidate any resulting evidence. If a hearing is held and the state is found to have acted illegally, Harris could win a new trial.

Abshire, whose current whereabouts were not divulged, said in the Nov. 7 affidavit that when he first encountered Harris in jail Abshire considered him as a “nut case.” Abshire said he complained to a bailiff that the inmate was “talking about killing kids” and subsequently was taken to an office where authorities told him about the case and recruited him to inform on Harris.

Abshire said that after being placed in a cell with Harris, the accused killer “did not seem mentally balanced or rational,” and that without the information he received from police, “it would have been very difficult for me to get Harris to say much about it.”

The informant also said that contrary to the sergeant’s testimony, Harris did not refer to the victims as “punk” or say he had “wasted them.”

Abshire said that before the trial he met with investigators at least three times “to rehearse my testimony.” He said he had been “coached” to say he had not had any discussion with authorities over what punishment he should receive for jail escape and theft, the charges he faced in California. In fact, Abshire said, he had told investigators he wanted to dispose of the charges with a 16-month prison sentence.

The informant said further he had been coached to say a deputy was outside the cell where he spoke with Harris and to say no one had asked him to question Harris about the case.

In a separate affidavit dated Nov. 15, Sonny Arthur Wisdom said he had been in the jail nearby and had been surprised to hear Abshire “persisting in asking incriminating questions” while Harris “did very little talking.” Wisdom said Harris did not refer to the boys as “punks” and “did not volunteer anything” incriminating.