A Murder Trial With the Feel of a Soap Opera : Crime: The prosecution of an innocent man, a mistrial, testimony by admitted liars and control of a family business are all elements of the case. And the fatal shot was fired 10 years ago.

For the second time in less than a year, Michael Seawright sat in a courtroom this week as lawyers debated whether he was the mastermind of a 10-year-old murder with a thick “daytime TV” plot rife with greed, family squabbles and a series of prosecutions.

After prosecutor Mike Duarte gave a quick summary of the twists that he said led to the murder-for-hire killing of Catherine Stroup, 46, in Hawthorne, Pomona Superior Court Judge Clarence A. Stromwall shook his head.

“I think we need Jessica Fletcher,” he said, referring to the television sleuth. “This whole thing is a movie scenario plot.”

The case hinges on whether prosecutors can persuade a jury that Seawright, 39, orchestrated the murder of Stroup, his mother-in-law, as part of a plan to wrest control of the desert-water delivery business that Stroup’s husband bankrolled and Seawright managed.

Seawright’s first trial last summer ended in a hung jury, which deadlocked 9-3 for conviction. A unanimous vote is needed for conviction. For prosecutors, it was just another snag in a case that has been beleaguered by delays, a mistrial and a botched prosecution.

Four people have been tried for the murder of Stroup, who was shot four times with a .22-caliber pistol in her Hawthorne apartment on April 5, 1983.

Stroup’s husband, James Stroup Sr., was acquitted in November, 1984, and, Duarte said, was mistakenly tried.

Peter and Paul Leach, two brothers who were friends of Seawright, were tried after investigators found the murder weapon and linked it to the Leach brothers several months after Stroup’s trial. The Leaches eventually told investigators that Seawright hired them for the killing with a promise that they would gain a stake in the water business, S&S; Water Co. of Twentynine Palms, and for a part of Stroup’s insurance, which, it turned out, did not exist.

Peter Leach, 31, the alleged triggerman, was convicted in 1988 and sentenced to life in prison without parole. An appellate court upheld the conviction but ordered a retrial solely on the issue of whether he should be eligible for parole. That penalty trial has been delayed, and it won’t get under way until after Seawright’s trial, Duarte said.

Paul Leach, 29, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 1991 as part of a plea bargain in which he is obligated to testify against Seawright. He was sentenced last month to 16 years to life in prison.

According to Duarte, Seawright had been squabbling with Catherine Stroup, who suspected him of skimming profits from the business. Duarte said Seawright then hatched the plan to kill the Stroups so he could take over the water business for himself.

He hired Peter and Paul Leach to do it, and they went to the Stroups’ apartment in Hawthorne armed with a pistol, Duarte said.

Paul Leach allegedly grabbed Catherine Stroup and struggled with her before his brother placed a pillow over the muzzle of the pistol and fired two shots into her chest. When she collapsed on the floor, he shot her twice in the back of the head, per Seawright’s instructions, Duarte said.

James Stroup returned home to find his wife on the floor with blood on her chest, and asked the apartment manager to call paramedics. Investigators initially thought Stroup had killed his wife during an argument. Stroup was arrested, tried and acquitted. Investigators said later that they regretted pursuing the case against him.

Four months after Stroup’s release from jail in November, 1984, investigators found the gun used in the murder and linked it to the Leach brothers, who lived in Twentynine Palms.

Duarte said the Leach brothers are expected to provide key testimony for the prosecution, although they could also provide problems.

Besides being felons, they also have admitted lying about their roles in the murders over the years, leading Seawright’s defense attorney to warn jurors about the brothers’ credibility.

Paul Leach’s plea bargain and the delay in Peter Leach’s penalty retrial indicate that they would say anything to appease prosecutors, defense attorney Robert Alden Welbourn suggested.

The case, Welbourn told jurors, “is like daytime TV. You have to keep track of what’s happening. But it gets down really to a credibility issue. What do these people get out of coming out 10 years later and telling a story?”

Welbourn said outside of court that he will show not only that Seawright was innocent, but that he sought to help James Stroup keep the water company afloat after Stroup was arrested, tried and ultimately acquitted of the murder.

Welbourn said his case rests on a fundamental question: If Seawright wanted control of the water delivery business, which was ailing and “had no value,” would Seawright help Stroup?

Prosecutors, Welbourn said, “are grasping for straws to find a motive.”

In a hearing with the jury outside of the courtroom, Welbourn hinted that he would cast suspicion on James Stroup.

Welbourn won from the judge permission to include grand jury testimony from a witness who quoted Stroup as saying, “I killed the bitch, and there’s nothing they can do to me” in a drinking binge after his acquittal. Welbourn noted that double jeopardy provisions in the law would prevent his retrial.

Duarte said that Stroup is “absolutely innocent” and that his prosecution, which Duarte did not handle, was “one of the worst things that happened.”

Stromwall said he will allow the remark and other potentially damaging testimony against Stroup, provided Welbourn demonstrates that it is relevant to the trial. But he warned Welbourn that Seawright is on trial, not Stroup.

Duarte declined to say for sure whether he thought this trial, expected to last until the end of July, would close the book on the case, saying only, “I hope so, but you never know.”

James Stroup Sr. was Duarte’s first witness this week in the trial, which is expected to last through July. It was moved from Torrance to a Pomona courtroom more suitable for lengthy trials.

Outside of court, Stroup said he is cautiously optimistic that the 10-year-old ordeal may finally end with the conviction of Seawright, who was once married to his daughter Sheryl. They have since divorced.

“Every time you think you got this thing behind you, something else pops up,” Stroup said.