Defendant in Assisted-Suicide Trial Knew of Victim’s Past : Crime: Alex Coventry was aware Leonard Medina had tried to take his own life before, prosecutor says.

A Tujunga man on trial for allegedly assisting in his roommate’s suicide knew the man had previously attempted to take his life before he handed him a shotgun and told him, “Just do it,” a prosecutor said Thursday.

A defense lawyer, meanwhile, said the dead man may not have believed the gun was loaded before he turned it on himself.

A Van Nuys Superior Court jury Thursday began hearing evidence in the rare assisted-suicide trial of Alex Coventry, 44, who was charged under an obscure 1873 law that says “every person who deliberately aids or advises or encourages another to commit suicide is guilty of a felony.” If convicted, he faces up to three years in state prison.

Leonard Medina, 42, who had been drinking for several hours, shot himself in the chest July 2, 1993, after Coventry handed him the gun in the bedroom of the Tujunga apartment he shared with Coventry and his girlfriend.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Andrew R. Flier said outside court Thursday that not only did Coventry encourage Medina to end his life, he knew that Medina was drunk and that he had previously attempted suicide on an unspecified date.

But Coventry’s attorney, Kenneth Lezin, told the jury in his opening statement that his client, who also had been drinking that night, did not intend that Medina would end his life. Lezin explained Coventry’s statement to Medina by arguing that Coventry is an alcoholic and the condition made him prone to exaggeration.

To bolster his claim, Lezin read excerpts from a tape-recorded interview with police in which Coventry said: “I couldn’t believe Leonard did it.”

Lezin continued, quoting Coventry: “I think he did it accidentally, too. He might not have known that it was loaded. He might have thought I was just kidding him.”

Linda McDowell, Coventry’s longtime girlfriend and Flier’s star witness, testified that she and her roommates were all having financial problems and were facing eviction from their apartment, which prosecutors believe caused Medina to kill himself.

McDowell said she spent much of the day drinking with Medina, whom she described as a very good friend.

Coventry, who was employed only sporadically, had gone to work in McDowell’s place helping an elderly woman because she was having a pay dispute with her employer, McDowell testified.

Because of McDowell’s salary problem, she said, the three did not have enough money to pay the rent on their Greeley Street apartment, and they were going to be evicted.

“There was always a problem with money,” she testified. “Leonard didn’t make that much.”

McDowell will continue her testimony Friday.