Bryant Family Murder Trial Witness Alleges Bribe, Threats : Courts: Rhonda Miller says associates of an accused drug ring gave her cash after she viewed a 1982 slaying that prosecutors link to the group.

In the continuing courtroom drama surrounding an alleged powerful Pacoima-based drug ring, a witness told jurors Friday that she had been bribed and intimidated in an apparent effort to keep her from implicating members of the so-called Bryant Family in a 1982 slaying.

Drawing deep, anxious breaths and fighting tears as she testified in Los Angeles Superior Court, witness Rhonda Miller said her abusive boyfriend was mysteriously bailed out of jail and came to her apartment on the same July, 1982, day that two alleged Bryant Family associates paid her a surprise visit and handed her an envelope containing $1,000 in cash.

“ ‘Here. This is from my old man,’ ” said Rochelle (Rollo) Evans, Miller recalled.

She also testified that Evans was well known on the streets of Pacoima as the girlfriend of alleged drug lord Jeff Bryant, who authorities say ran a ruthless, multimillion-dollar cocaine empire with his younger brother, Stanley. Evans was accompanied by Stanley Bryant’s girlfriend, Tannis Babineaux, Miller testified.

Stanley Bryant and three alleged Family agents are on trial for a drug-related quadruple murder in 1988, the victims of which included a 2-year-old girl. Prosecutors have spent the past week trying to demonstrate that the Bryants ruled by fear, and indeed, several witnesses in a row claimed ignorance of events that they had previously described in detail for police.

One witness, G. T. Fisher, told prosecutors shortly before he was to take the witness stand this week that he would lie to save his life, an admission that was secretly tape recorded, then played in court. On the stand, Fisher not only denied having seen Stanley Bryant point out a 1982 murder victim to a hit man, as prosecutors contend that he did, but insisted the voice on the audiotape was not his.

Miller, in contrast, was painfully candid in her testimony, conceding that she had worked as both a drug dealer and prostitute to support her habit, had repeatedly gone to prison, sank into homelessness and temporarily lost custody of her four children. She also acknowledged during cross-examination that she had used part of the $1,000--as well as some relocation money from police--for drugs.

Dates and chronology were largely a haze, she admitted, laughing when Deputy Dist. Atty. Dale Davidson asked her about a particular year.

“I was so far into my addiction, I didn’t never keep up with the years,” Miller said.

She said her addiction worsened after she witnessed the May 27, 1982, murder of Ken Gentry outside the Pierce Park Apartments in Pacoima. But she entered a rehabilitation program and has been drug-free for the past 13 months, she said.

On the day she was visited by Evans and Babineaux, who later married Jeff and Stanley Bryant, Miller said she initially resisted taking their money. But she relented after her boyfriend, who frequently beat her, pressured her to accept the cash and became “real upset” with her for refusing.

“I was in a very abusive relationship with him and I had just separated from him. I didn’t want him angry with me,” Miller testified, adding that she had no idea how her boyfriend, Alvin Brown, got out of jail.

Later Friday, prosecutors presented evidence that Jeff and Stanley Bryant’s mother, Florence Bryant, had bailed Brown out on July 6, 1982, using a house owned by the Bryant Family as collateral. The property on Louvre Street in Pacoima, prosecutors said, was part of a network of Bryant Family crack houses.

About three weeks earlier the Bryant brothers had been arrested in connection with Gentry’s murder, along with the hit man, Andre Armstrong. Although the Bryant brothers were not convicted of that slaying, Armstrong was.

Armstrong became a murder victim himself on Aug. 28, 1988, after he was released from prison. Police say the Bryants killed him after he demanded a piece of their business in exchange for his silence.

Slain with Armstrong were his partner James Brown, Brown’s girlfriend Loretha Anderson and Anderson’s daughter, Chemise English. Stanley Bryant and co-defendants Jon Settle, Donald Smith and LeRoy Wheeler could face the death penalty if convicted.

In 1982, Miller had initially identified Armstrong as the man she saw near the fatal Gentry shooting, although she told detectives she could not be certain of it because she had only peripheral vision.

But during a preliminary hearing in July, 1982--after the visit from Evans, Babineaux and her boyfriend--Miller recanted her statements to police and lied on the witness stand, denying she had identified Armstrong in a lineup, she acknowledged Friday.

“That was not correct, was it?” Davidson asked, referring to her testimony during the preliminary hearing.

“No, it was not,” Miller responded.