Man Convicted of Trying to Kill Witness in West Case : Crime: The victim is expected to testify in El Segundo slaying. He was assaulted while under police protection.

Trial witness Thomas Sembower was under police protection the night he was attacked.

Police had tucked him away in a hotel room on a quiet, tree-lined street in El Segundo because he had been threatened. Sembower, a soft-spoken man in his early 20s, is expected to be a witness in the case against four people charged with the February killing of the daughter of Alan West, then an El Segundo councilman. Police said they believed no one would be able to find Sembower to hurt him.

But Erik Womack did.

Womack, 29, was found guilty Tuesday of attempted murder and intimidating a witness for the attack on Sembower in March. When he is sentenced July 6, Womack could get life in prison.

According to testimony in Torrance Superior Court last week, Sembower stepped out for a walk on a cool March night, around 11 o’clock, when a man grabbed him from behind, wrapped a rope around his neck and pulled him to the ground.

A second man knelt on him and began slashing him across the chest with a sharp object.

“You should have left it alone,” one of the men said as he tightened the rope around Sembower’s neck.

Sembower grabbed the rope and tried to free himself. As the rope’s fibers ground into his hands, he thought he was going to die.

Then, from a distance, came a third man’s shout: “Car!”

One of the men slashed Sembower across the cheek, and the three fled.

Although no trial date has yet been set, Sembower is scheduled to testify against Robert Foster, Marcus Brewington, Lynette Blocker and Erica Olson. They are charged with killing Tairree Lynne West, 25, and slashing the throat of her 12-year-old daughter, Ashley, in a February attack in their El Segundo apartment.

West’s slaying shocked the peaceful coastal community. She was in her Imperial Avenue apartment with her 6-month-old daughter, Carlie, and her adopted daughter, Ashley, when she was stabbed and strangled. Ashley survived the attack and called police. Carlie was found gagged but unharmed on the living room couch.

Police said West had allowed Olson, 20, to stay in her apartment occasionally to help her “get back on her feet,” and they said Olson’s boyfriend, Foster, 18, might have been angry with West. Apparently West did not want him to visit her apartment, police said.

The four were arrested in Hollywood the day after the attack.

Like those charged in the El Segundo slaying, Sembower was homeless and living on the streets of Hollywood.

A day after the attack, Sembower went to Los Angeles police and told them that he heard the four plan the attack near a hangout for the homeless. He said they invited him to join in, but he wanted no part of it. He maintains that he frequently saw the defendants around shelters for the young and needy and said Womack, the man charged with attacking him, knew at least one of the suspects in the attack on West. The other two men who took part in the attack on Sembower have not been identified.

An advocate for the homeless testified that she had seen Olson’s boyfriend, Foster, and Womack talking on two occasions in a homeless facility.

Police said they don’t know how the attackers found Sembower in El Segundo, but they said Sembower failed to follow their orders when he was placed under police protection.

“He was told not to go out, but he did,” said Police Detective Craig Cleary. Sembower occasionally walked several blocks to a public library and went to the beach several times, Cleary said.

Still, Cleary said, he was surprised to learn that the attackers had found Sembower.

“It’s like finding a needle in a haystack,” he said.

Womack, who has been convicted of several felonies, including a robbery, testified that he was in Hollywood selling drugs the night Sembower was attacked.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Steve Levine showed the jury photographs taken of Sembower shortly after the attack. They show rope burns on Sembower’s neck and across his palms and slash marks across his chest. The cut across his cheek required four stitches.

Levine, who is also the prosecutor in the other El Segundo trial, accused Womack of lying throughout the trial and said Sembower is lucky to be alive.

“Fortunately, a car did come by, and that’s why this attack ended,” he said.

Sembower, who has been placed under the protection of the district attorney’s office, has been moved to an undisclosed location out of the state.