ANAHEIM : Man Forced to Relive Horror a 4th Time

Three times before, Kazumi Hanano has recalled the day two gunmen killed his wife and left him for dead at their Anaheim home--once to police from his hospital bed after surgery to remove two bullets from his head; once from his wheelchair to a grand jury; and once to a judge at a pretrial hearing.

Monday, in labored tones caused by constant chest pain, the 65-year-old landscaper, who was left paralyzed by the shooting, told a Superior Court jury how he lay for six hours handcuffed to his wife’s body before help arrived.

It was the fourth time he has had to recount the horror, but when Deputy Dist. Atty. Bryan F. Brown, the prosecutor, asked him during questioning if he wanted to take a break, he answered, “No. I’d rather get on with it.”

Hanano’s testimony came on the last day of the prosecution’s case against three people charged with murder and attempted murder in the July 10, 1988, slaying of Hanano’s 60-year-old wife, Ryoko. Brown contends that the couple were shot because the accused wanted to steal their 1984 Corvette, advertised for sale at $20,000.

Hanano testified that just before the shooting his wife tried to warn him in Japanese “that something funny was going on” as they sat at their kitchen table with two of the prospective buyers. She had become suspicious when one man wanted them to lie on the bill of sale about the price of the car.

When the two men finally drew guns, Hanano testified that his wife turned to him and said in Japanese again: “ ‘See, I told you it wasn’t right . . . they are crooks.’ ”

Then the courtroom atmosphere grew solemn as Hanano softly repeated in Japanese a Buddhist prayer his wife chanted over and over until the moment of her death.

Hanano said the men responsible were the defendants, Robert (T-Bone) Taylor, 39, of Sunset Beach, and Norman James Dewitt, 36, of Cypress. He told the jury that both men handcuffed him to his wife and made them kneel over the box springs of their bed. Then, they were shot through a top mattress that was placed over their heads to muffle the gunshots.

Hanano testified that the third defendant, Nanette Marie Scheid, 29, of Newport Beach brought Taylor and Dewitt to his home to buy the Corvette.

Scheid is the most difficult of the three cases for prosecutors because she left the house before any guns were drawn. She contends that she thought her boyfriend, Taylor, had the money with him to buy the Corvette.

Taylor has admitted to police his role in the shooting. Dewitt contends that he wasn’t involved. But his attorney, George Peters, expects to concentrate instead on more technical aspects of the shooting in attempt to save his client from the gas chamber.

Prosecutors must only prove that Taylor robbed the Hananos to qualify him for the death penalty. For Dewitt, who apparently did not shoot anyone, prosecutors must prove that he went to the Hananos’ house with intent to kill.

Hanano arrived in court Monday through a back door, accompanied by his son, Dean, who had found his parents lying in a pool of blood on the floor of their bedroom the night after the shooting.

Brown made a rare request--granted by Judge Francisco P. Briseno--to bar news photographers and television cameras from the courtroom during Hanano’s testimony. The judge also permitted Hanano to leave the building through a back route to avoid the media.

Defense lawyers asked Hanano very few questions but clarified a significant point in Dewitt’s defense.

During his testimony, Hanano repeatedly insisted that when the guns were drawn, Dewitt said “this is how it’s going to go,” damaging the defense contention that, if Dewitt was in the house, he did not mean for anyone to get hurt.

But in his previous statements, Hanano twice attributed the statement to Taylor. He corrected himself during defense questioning and said he meant to say it was Taylor, not Dewitt.

Peters, who is Dewitt’s attorney, is scheduled to begin his defense today.