Man Says Green Talked of Scenario in Wife’s Death : Murder trial: A former tenant testifies that the husband maintained a motorcyclist shot the woman after her car cut him off.

An Encino man charged with arranging his wife’s murder said an angry motorcyclist whom his wife cut off on the freeway was responsible for her death, a friend of the accused testified Wednesday.

Joseph Corrado, who rented a room from Melvin Green after Green’s wife, Anita, moved out of their house, said in Los Angeles Superior Court that the two men discussed the killing four days after the October, 1990, incident.

Corrado said Green became angry because Corrado didn’t believe him and questioned whether Anita Green would have been on the the Hollywood Freeway, because it did not afford a direct route to her destination. “He was very insistent,” Corrado said. “Melvin was telling me that she probably cut the guy off on the freeway and he shot her. I told him it was far-fetched.”

Anita Green was shot to death on Oct. 25, 1990, immediately after pulling into the parking lot of her husband’s accounting office, where she occasionally worked. Police said that she had been followed by a motorcyclist, who stopped at the curb, walked up to her as she was getting out of her car and shot her once in the head. The motorcyclist, who wore a visored helmet, sped off and has never been found.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Kent Cahill maintains that Green hired someone to kill his wife because Green was jealous that she was involved with other men, was seeking a large divorce settlement and that Green thought she was trying to ruin his business. Green has been charged with first-degree murder.

Eugenia Siguenza, Anita Green’s hairdresser for three years, testified that the day before the slaying, Melvin Green called his wife at the salon. Siguenza said Anita Green told her that Melvin Green insisted that she come by the office the next day at 10:30 a.m. to pick up a paycheck.

“She said she was afraid to go pick up the check,” Siguenza said. “She said Mel lately was real angry and she was afraid he would lose his temper.”

Outside the courtroom, Green’s two attorneys--Gerald L. Chaleff and Arthur B. Alexander--said they do not know if Anita Green was shot by an angry motorist, but maintained their client’s innocence.

“Mel Green didn’t arrange to have his wife killed,” Chaleff said. “There is no evidence.”

Prosecutors are relying primarily on friends and associates of the Greens who say they heard Green repeatedly threaten to have his wife killed. But Green’s attorneys say any threats were made facetiously and that the police investigation focused on Green because he was the easiest target.