Crime Scene Evidence Shown at Tillman Trial

Prosecutors spent most of Wednesday laying out crime scene evidence--a blood-spattered beeper, three mangled .38-caliber bullets and a palm print--but came no closer to linking Olympic boxer Henry Tillman to a 1996 shooting that killed one man and wounded another.

Witnesses at Tillman’s murder trial in Superior Court in Santa Monica included LAPD patrol officers, a watch commander, a detective and fingerprint and firearms experts. But the crime scene yielded little: There is no murder weapon, no hair or fiber evidence and only one palm print, taken from a window of the victims’ Lincoln Continental.

According to testimony, the print belongs to a witness named Lauri Meadows, who was talking to Leon “LB” Milton and Kevin “Kato” Anderson when the gunman walked up, pushed her to the ground and fired into the car.

Meadows, who is expected to testify, initially identified Tillman as the killer but recanted at a preliminary hearing. In his opening statement, Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Duarte told jurors that Meadows will now identify Tillman as the gunman and explain that she changed her story because she feared for her life.

Waffling witnesses have plagued the prosecution’s case. Officer Robin Jones, the first on the scene, testified Wednesday that 60 people were milling around the shooting scene when she arrived at the Townhouse nightclub in Westchester. But when she asked if anyone had seen anything, most raised their hands and walked away, she said. Half a dozen witnesses gave police written statements.

Two of them, testifying earlier in the week, recanted parts of their stories. One man, who told police he saw Tillman at the club that night, said on the witness stand that he now wasn’t sure. Another man who described the gunshots for police testified that he now couldn’t recall hearing any.

Tillman, 39, rose from a harsh life of crime to win the gold medal for heavyweight boxing at the 1984 Olympics. He is charged with Anderson’s murder and the attempted murder of Milton, who recovered but has since been sentenced to 30 years in prison for a 1998 Nebraska cocaine-dealing conviction.