Witnesses in Rapper Trial Alter Stories : Courts: Prosecution suffers several apparent setbacks but says such discrepancies are common in gang cases. Defense contends that weakness of the evidence is becoming apparent.

A week into the Snoop Doggy Dogg murder trial, several of the prosecution’s key witnesses have changed or contradicted their stories on the stand, giving the defense ammunition in its attempt to discredit the case against the rap music star and his former bodyguard.

Defense lawyers say the inconsistencies reflect the weakness of the accusations; prosecutors dismiss them as minor slips whose importance is being exaggerated.

The first witness, a 21-year-old police Explorer Scout, told jurors that he saw the rapper and bodyguard McKinley Lee drive by several times with “menacing” looks on their faces before stopping at a Westside park and opening fire, killing Philip Woldemariam on the night of Aug. 25, 1993.

The witness--who claimed to see smoke coming off the suspects’ gun--later acknowledged under cross-examination that he was more than 100 yards away from from the park at the time of the shooting and did not see Woldemariam get hit.

A second witness told jurors that he saw Lee walk down the alley behind his apartment with a gun several hours before Woldemariam was shot and killed at the nearby Woodbine Park in the Palms district. But that witness later acknowledged that the man he saw was larger and lighter-skinned than Lee.

And a third witness, who was on the stand Monday, told jurors that he couldn’t see much of anything--because he was high on marijuana and was not wearing his glasses at the time of the shooting. He also said he lied to police in an earlier interview when he told them he had seen the gun go off.

The prosecution contends that Snoop Doggy Dogg, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, was riding with Lee in Broadus’ Jeep when they followed, taunted and gunned down Woldemariam as he tried to flee after a gang-related dispute. The defense contends Lee shot Woldemariam in self-defense.

Broadus’ attorney, David Kenner, said the inconsistency of the early testimony “speaks volumes to the weakness of the prosecution’s case.”

Lee’s attorney, Donald Re, said the prosecution witnesses “have been led by the nose to say certain things. Now that they have to explain themselves, they change their story.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Ed Nison accused the defense of trying to take the inconsistencies “out of context. . . . In the end, I haven’t seen anything to cause the jury to disbelieve the witnesses, at least on the material points.”

Nison said the witnesses’ memories may have become hazy in the two years since the shooting, causing some of the contradictions. He also said he believes the third witness may have changed his story because he was fearful of reprisal from the rapper, who is known to have gang ties. (Defense lawyers say Woldemariam, a Palms-area gang member, resented Broadus moving from Long Beach into his neighborhood.)

“Every gang case I have put on, someone will get up and say, ‘I lied to the police,’ ” Nison said. “It’s very typical of the situation.”

Prosecutors spent much of Monday questioning witness Jose Luis Murillo about what he saw the night of the shooting. Murillo said he had been standing outside with his cousin Cesar Serrano, an Explorer Scout with the Santa Monica Police Department, at the time Broadus and Lee drove by several times and then stopped at the park. Prosecutors said that bolstered their claim that Broadus and Lee were looking for a fight.

Co-prosecutor Bobby Grace read from a transcript of an interview in which Murillo had told police he saw a flash of light coming from the Jeep as the gun went off.

“Did you actually see a flash?” Grace asked Murillo.

“No,” Murillo responded.

When asked why he gave contradictory information to police, Murillo said, “It was all the excitement,” adding that he had merely repeated to police what Serrano had told him he had seen.

Prosecutors said they hope the jury will accept the account Murillo gave to police and discount his court testimony.

Defense attorneys contend that the prosecution’s witness problems will not end with Murillo.

Two of Woldemariam’s friends, who are expected to testify later this week, initially told police that Woldemariam did not have a gun at the time he was killed. They later admitted they had taken the gun from him as he lay dying in the carport just behind the park. The defense contends that Woldemariam was reaching for his gun, prompting Lee to shoot him.