Alleged Hit Man Is Victim of Mistaken ID, Lawyer Says

Although a San Clemente businessman positively identified Paul Gorden Alleyne as the man who shot him in the face, Alleyne’s attorney told a jury Tuesday that his client is the victim of mistaken identity.

“Mr. [James] Wengert is wrong about who he saw shoot him,” defense attorney Federico Sayre told jurors as Alleyne’s trial began in Orange County Superior Court.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Tom Glazier said that Wengert is positive about the identity of his assailant and contended that other evidence will help prove Alleyne, 32, guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, robbery and attempted murder.

Wengert, 48, was shot in the face April 10 in a San Clemente parking structure, leaving him with a scar, a broken jaw and five shattered teeth.

Authorities allege that Alleyne was ordered by Coleman Allen, the late owner of Premium Commercial Services Corp. of Huntington Beach, to kill Wengert for his $500,000 life insurance policy, which listed Premium as the sole beneficiary. Alleyne, who owned a Los Angeles auto parts business, was given the order because he owed $30,000 to Allen, authorities allege.

Authorities also have alleged that Premium required creditors to take out large life insurance policies naming the company as beneficiary.

Wengert, a private investigator, admitted that he owed Premium money, a figure Alleyne believed was as high as $400,000 but one Wengert contended was closer to $71,000. The dispute escalated to the point, Wengert said, that his wife, Margaret “Peggy” Wengert, filed a lawsuit in June 1995 against Premium, which was attempting to seize their home over the debt.

Three days later, Fountain Valley flight attendant Jane Carver, 46, was shot to death in what police believe was a case of mistaken identity, with Wengert’s wife being the killer’s true target.

The Wengerts’ former home, which was in Peggy Wengert’s name, was near Carver’s house, not far from the Fountain Valley park where she was shot in the face while jogging.

In his testimony Tuesday, Wengert pointed without hesitation at Alleyne when asked to identify his assailant. Alleyne’s attorney said Wengert is mistaken.

Right after the attack, Wengert described his assailant as about 5 feet, 9 inches tall, with an earring and beard, Sayre told jurors.

Alleyne, the defense attorney said, is over 6 feet tall, has never had a pierced ear and is unable to grow a beard, as proven in a jail experiment monitored by a dermatologist.

Sayre said the assailant initially described by Wengert looks more like Leonard Owen Mundy, a Los Angeles man awaiting trial on charges he carried out the botched hit in Fountain Valley that killed Carver. Mundy, like Alleyne, owned a small Los Angeles-area business and owed Premium money.