Man Describes Killing of Councilwoman’s Husband : Courts: Key witness in Lynwood case later concedes that he did not actually see the shooting or the victim’s body.

The key witness in the murder of Donald Morris, the husband of a Lynwood city councilwoman, testified Tuesday that a part-time city employee gunned down Morris without warning, smiled and later said, “I’m a cold killer.”

Frederick Foley told jurors that on April 2, after an evening of drinking, he and the accused killer, Samuel Baxter, who worked on the city’s graffiti cleanup crew, gave Morris a ride home.

Foley said Morris got out of the passenger side of the truck and walked away. Foley said he was waiting for Baxter, who had been sitting in the back seat, to join him in the front seat when he heard two shots, a moan and three more shots.

Foley said the next thing he knew, Baxter jumped into the front seat, lay down and ordered him to turn off the lights and drive away.

“I knew Donnie (Morris) had been shot, and probably I was going to get it next,” Foley testified, adding later that “darkness, a lot of craziness (was going through my mind). I was almost blacking out. Most guns I know have six shots, and I knew I had only heard five, so I knew there was one for me.”

However, under cross-examination, Foley acknowledged that he did not actually see Baxter get out of the truck, never saw him with a gun, did not see him shoot Morris and drove off without ever seeing Morris’ body.

“If you didn’t see them, how did you know Sam shot him?” defense attorney Ronald Le Mieux asked.

“Nobody else was there,” Foley replied. “It was right there. It was real.”

Morris was shot to death at about midnight on the day after a Long Beach newspaper printed a story in which Morris accused his wife, City Councilwoman Evelyn Wells, of having an affair with City Manager Laurence H. Adams Sr. Neither Wells nor Adams was named as a suspect in the case, and police determined that there was no motive for the shooting. No murder weapon has been found.

Much of the case hinges on Foley’s testimony. He is the only witness who says he saw Baxter and Morris together on the evening of April 2. Foley said that he went to visit Morris to talk about the newspaper article and Baxter tagged along. After several beers, Foley testified, Baxter told him, “I oughta take (Morris) out.” Foley said, however, he did not take Baxter’s remark seriously, and only thought that Baxter had had too much to drink.

Defense attorney Le Meiux asked Foley why he let Baxter back into the truck, why he did not go back to see if Morris was OK, and why he waited two days to go to the police.

Foley said repeatedly that he was not thinking right and was “doing things I ordinarily would not have done.”