3 Convicts in Lye Murder Case Take Stand : Court: At retrial of Ricardo H. Robinson, defendant questions two other men brought from state prison to testify.

It was an odd setting for a reunion, and there was no love lost among the participants, but three men convicted of murder in the fatal 1980 lye attack of an aspiring lawyer took turns on the witness stand in a Van Nuys courtroom on Wednesday.

They wore colored jail jumpsuits of different hues. Defendant Ricardo H. Robinson, representing himself, posed questions to the others who had been brought from state prison to testify, one to clear him, one to implicate him.

Then Robinson took the witness stand and denied playing any part in the scheme to disfigure law student Patricia Worrell.

So went another day at the retrial of Robinson, the only member of the alleged plot to successfully appeal his 1982 conviction for murdering Worrell, who died of her injuries 14 years ago. Robinson confessed, but an appeals court overturned his conviction, voided the confession and ordered a new trial.

Testifying for the prosecution was former Las Vegas pimp Bobby Ray Savage, who recanted all his previous denials, admitted his role in the crime for the first time, and also pointed an accusing finger at Robinson. He testified that he saw Robinson knock on the door of Worrell’s Sylmar home on Aug. 14, 1980, and throw lye at her.

Worrell, who was blinded and disfigured by the caustic chemical, died 10 days later.

Appearing for the defense was the other co-conspirator, Richard Morton Gilman, the victim’s fellow law student and jilted fiance and the man convicted of orchestrating the lye attack. He denied any involvement, and testified he had never met Robinson.

“I never hired Bobby Ray Savage to do anything to Patricia Worrell, never,” Gilman testified.

Asked by prosecutor Robert L. Cohen if he felt wrongly imprisoned, Gilman said again: “After 14 years, I think it is irrelevant at this point. When you’re in the real world of prison, you accept where you’re at.”

While Gilman was not the most enthusiastic defense witness in the courthouse, Savage had balked outright at testifying for the prosecution.

Although he had refused to testify Tuesday, he had a change of heart and took the witness stand Wednesday morning. He said he felt he had to do the right thing.

He turned out to be a star witness for the prosecution.

When he met Robinson during the summer of 1980, Savage testified, he was a pimp and worked part time as a skip tracer for a bail bondsman. One of his prostitutes, Kim Bricker, said one of her clients needed somebody to assault a woman in Los Angeles. He met Gilman, who offered him $1,500 for the job and paid $750 up front.

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Robinson had asked him for help getting “an ‘in’ in Vegas,” Savage said. So, he offered him the “job” he had agreed to do for Gilman.

The two men planned the attack, and purchased the lye at a supermarket in Las Vegas, mixing the crystals with water in a glass jar. Robinson got a rental car and they drove together to Los Angeles, Savage testified.

It was dark when they arrived at the address in Sylmar that Gilman had given them, he testified. According to the plan, Gilman was inside playing cards with Worrell. Savage said he turned on the headlights of Worrell’s car, as planned, while Robinson went to the door.

“Rick was knocking at the door and somebody came to the door and I seen him toss the stuff,” Savage testified.

Robinson, who is representing himself, conducted cross-examination that resulted in some rather personal exchanges between witness and defense counsel. For example:

Robinson: “Who threw the stuff at Miss Worrell?”

Savage: “You did . . . . We were both there, Rick, and we both know what happened . . .”

Robinson: “Mr. Savage, you set me up to take the fall for this crime, didn’t you, sir?”

Savage: “How could I set you up when I’m doing a life sentence?”

Robinson: “You know you didn’t tell me (about the lye attack) until we were in the car, on the way back?”

Savage: “You know that’s a lie, Rick . . . “

As Robinson continued to question Savage, the witness interrupted him, and got to the point: “I’m not an angel, Rick. We both know that.”