2 Acquitted in Killing After Witnesses Recant Testimony

The prosecutor preparing for the murder trial in the slaying of three Pasadena boys last Halloween may have been dealt a blow Tuesday when jurors speedily acquitted two defendants in a related gang murder after all eyewitnesses recanted their testimony on the stand.

Felton Ray Leagons, 20, and Daywon Green, 19, were found not guilty of killing Fernando Hodges, 21, a Pasadena gang member shot to death in the Community Arms housing project. Police believe the Hodges murder was the trigger for the Halloween homicides, in which fellow members of Hodges’ gang opened fire on a group of young Halloween party-goers in the mistaken belief that they were avenging Hodges’ death.

Three boys were killed and seven wounded in the Oct. 31, 1993, incident. A trial date is scheduled to be set today for the five gang members accused of killing the boys.

Prosecutors said the Leagons-Green verdict was especially distressing because of the difficulty of prosecuting gang cases in a small community such as Pasadena. Both cases were perceived as difficult prosecutions because they involve a hard-core Pasadena gang that is known for violence and is widely feared in the city, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Antony Myers.

“It’s very difficult, almost impossible, to get people to come to court and testify truthfully about what they have seen or what they have heard,” Myers said after the verdicts.

“It starts with fear,” Myers said. “That’s the four-letter word I’m up against.”

In the complex five-week trial, Myers argued that Leagons, an associate of Hodges, killed Hodges because the gang member was dating Leagons’ former girlfriend. Green helped Leagons commit the murder out of friendship and loyalty, the prosecutor argued. The pair then blamed the shooting on rival gang members, fearing that Hodges’ fellow gang members would kill them, Myers said.

But the prosecutor’s theory fell apart during the trial when balky witnesses refused in court to identify Leagons and Green. Some said they had relied on street rumors to identify the pair. Others said they never got a good look at the gunmen, whose faces were obscured by hooded sweat shirts.

One witness, outfitted in a wig and dark glasses, fled the courtroom, fearing exposure. He returned only after guarantees that his name would not be published in news accounts. But once on the stand, he would not identify Leagons and Green.

Leagons’ former girlfriend, who originally said she remembered the shooter’s face in a dream, also denied in court that she could identify Leagons as the assailant.

As a result, Myers was put in the unusual position of telling jurors not to believe what his own witnesses said in court.

Meanwhile, defense witnesses testified that Leagons and Green were blocks away from the housing project when the shooting occurred, adding that the two went to the scene minutes after the gunfire ended only because they wanted to see what happened.

The jury took six hours to acquit the two men. They told defense attorneys after the trial that the prosecutor’s witnesses were not credible.

Because of its links to the Halloween slayings, the trial of Leagons and Green had been closely watched. Members of a Los Angeles-based group, Mothers Reclaiming Our Children, had accompanied the defendants’ mothers and family members to court nearly every day.

The mothers of the two defendants insisted that their sons were innocent, and had been arrested only because police had faced extreme pressure to solve the highly publicized Halloween killings. The deaths of Edgar Evans, 13, and Stephen Coats and Reggie Crawford, both 14, in that incident sparked creation of a citywide anti-violence coalition that as recently as Saturday held a conference attended by nearly 800 people.

When the verdicts were returned, Leagons and Green buried their faces in their hands, wept and embraced their mothers.