Victim Appeared Unarmed, Jury Told

A witness in the Snoop Doggy Dogg murder trial testified Wednesday that the victim appeared unarmed and was walking away from the rapper’s Jeep when he was shot in a Palms park in August 1993.

Trevor Wolfe told the jury that she did not see the victim, Philip Woldemariam, reach for his waistband and pull out a gun--contrary to a defense contention that the rapper’s bodyguard shot Woldemariam in self-defense after Woldemariam displayed a weapon and possibly fired it.

Offering a step-by-step account of what she witnessed at Woodbine Park the evening of Aug. 25, 1993, Wolfe said she was sitting on a swing when the rapper’s black Jeep Cherokee--well-known in the neighborhood--pulled to the curb and stopped.

With her interest piqued, she watched as Woldemariam, who was sitting with two friends on a park bench in front of her, got up and walked over to the vehicle, she testified.

Woldemariam talked with the occupants of the Jeep for a while, then turned around and walked away, Wolfe said.

Then gunfire erupted.

“I saw Phil stumble and I looked toward the Jeep and it drove off,” she said, adding that Woldemariam was about 18 feet away from the vehicle when he was hit. Struck in the lower left back and buttocks, Woldemariam ran to a nearby carport, where he died.

Asked how she knew the victim, she said she had seen him on two prior occasions at the park and was told his name, but added that they had never spoken.

The rapper, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, and his former bodyguard, McKinley Lee, have been charged with murder in connection with the shooting, which prosecutors say was sparked by a gang-related dispute. The two men remain free on bail.

Wolfe acknowledged under cross-examination that she was not looking directly at the Jeep or at Woldemariam when he was shot, but that she looked back at him after she heard the gunfire.

She also said that she could not tell if Woldemariam was carrying anything when he approached the Jeep, but that she thought his hands were empty.

Wolfe is expected to take the stand again today. The district attorney’s office only recently became aware that she had knowledge of the incident and served her with a subpoena several weeks ago in Alaska, where she now lives. A district attorney’s investigator received a tip about her while searching for possible leads at Hamilton High School.

Defense attorneys, claiming that prosecutors tried to catch them off guard with a surprise witness, asked the judge to exclude Wolfe’s testimony.

But Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Paul G. Flynn said he would allow the prosecution to put her on the stand, adding outside the jury’s presence that he thought Wolfe was a “fairly minimal” witness.

Under questioning by both prosecutors and defense attorneys, Wolfe offered testimony that at times differed from that of two of the victim’s friends, who were with Woldemariam when he was shot.

*

Woldemariam’s friends testified that they walked into the park carrying bags of takeout food and drinks. Wolfe said they had nothing in their hands when they sat down at a park bench.

The friends said the victim threw his hands in the air and yelled, “What’s up?” when he saw the Jeep driving slowly around the park. Wolfe said she never saw him make any hand motions.

Woldemariam and friend Jason London walked toward the Jeep together, previous witnesses testified. Wolfe, however, said Woldemariam approached the Jeep alone.