Protected Witness Describes Career With Bryant Family for Jury : Murder: Prosecutors of three suspects say former money-counter will recount details of 1988 slayings of two men, a woman and a child.

Former Bryant Family money-counter James Franklin Williams IV, now a protected prosecution witness, led a Superior Court jury inside the Pacoima-based cocaine ring Wednesday, describing a business complete with company cars, work shifts and abundant opportunities for promotion.

There were also plenty of opportunities to kill, say prosecutors, who are accusing four of Williams’ former superiors of murder in a continuing trial in Los Angeles.

Although prosecutors say Williams witnessed four slayings on Aug. 28, 1988, at a Bryant Family crack house, much of his first day of testimony focused on his five-month career with an organization Williams called simply, “The Family.”

A tall, massive man who once weighed nearly 300 pounds, Williams ambled to the witness stand wearing baggy, khaki-colored pants and a plaid silk shirt. He slouched and twisted in his seat as he recounted his experience inside The Family.

He said he handled only money, and never saw any drugs.

Williams said his Bryant Family career began April 1, 1988, when he started working at Neighborhood Billiards, a pool hall on Van Nuys Boulevard that served as The Family’s hub. It ended with the Aug. 28 bloodbath at the Wheeler Avenue crack house, after which Williams says Family leader Stanley Bryant advised him to take $2,000 and a six-month vacation.

Four people, one of them a child, died that day at the house in Lake View Terrace: former Family hit man Andre Armstrong; James Brown, Armstrong’s friend and business partner; Loretha Anderson, Brown’s girlfriend, and 28-month-old Chemise English, the woman’s daughter. Another child was cut by flying glass.

Charged with four counts of murder each are Bryant, an alleged Family leader, and three employees--Donald Franklin Smith, Jon Preston Settle, and LeRoy Wheeler, a stocky man whom witness Williams has known since childhood as “Slim.”

Testifying under a grant of immunity from prosecution, Williams said he was a small-time street dealer, selling crack for $20 to $100, until he joined The Family. During his brief career there, he nearly doubled his income, from $233 to $500 a week in cash. He was 19 at the time.

He said he worked for a month at the pool hall--cleaning up, selling soft drinks and chips, and directing “drug addicts to the spot where they could pick up their drugs.”

If anyone who approached him used the words “dope” or “cocaine,” signaling their naivete, Williams said he’d just shrug, feign ignorance and say, “This is a pool hall.” Those who were more subtle in their approach would be referred to a Family dealer at Hansen Dam or other northeast San Fernando Valley locations.

“If they thought they were being slick, they’d say, ‘Where’s the game at?’ ” he testified.

Williams was quickly promoted to the Family “count house” on Wheeler Avenue, one of an alleged network of Family-owned properties. The house, Williams testified, was equipped with a money counter capable of detecting counterfeit bills, an adding machine, pre-printed “confirmation sheets” to record completed drug deals, and a four-door security cage at the front entrance.

Williams worked the day shift, which he said was “pretty slow.” He counted the cash, sorted it, stacked it in piles of 50 bills, secured the piles with rubber bands and stored them in a safe.

He passed the time between deals watching television, sleeping and talking on the telephone. When called upon to arrange a deal, Williams said he answered the door, took the money and referred the customer to a pickup site. Most of the customers dealt in larger quantities of cocaine, he said.

Shortly before the shootings--which allegedly took place to prevent Armstrong from grabbing a portion of the Bryant empire--Stanley Bryant took extra security measures, Williams testified. He said he was given a .45 caliber semiautomatic to hold while answering the door. Meanwhile, Bryant announced that the pool hall was closing down because police were wise to the Family’s dealings there.

Then, the Family kept the pool hall open for 24 hours straight, with various family members taking 90-minute shifts so all the customers could be notified of the change, Williams said.

Finally, on Aug. 28, Williams said, Bryant came to the count house and took out the cash and counting equipment. He asked Williams to work overtime.

At about 5 p.m., prosecutors allege, defendants Settle and Smith ambushed Armstrong and Brown, gunning them down once they were trapped inside the security cage. As Bryant sped away, Wheeler, armed with a .357 magnum pistol and a sawed-off shotgun, shot the woman and child to death as they waited in a parked car outside.

The men’s bodies were dumped in Lopez Canyon, while the woman and child’s bodies were found around the corner from the Wheeler Avenue house.

Prosecutors contend that Armstrong was set up because he was demanding payment for time he spent in prison and threatening a takeover of the business.

Settle and Wheeler have denied they were present. Defense attorneys in the case say prosecutors made a deal with a guilty man and have blown up the case until it resembles a Mafia-style, organized-crime prosecution.

Testimony was to continue today, with Williams expected to describe the slayings in detail.