Deathbed Nod Likely to Be Key in Murder Trial

Strapped to a hospital bed, near death, a tube down her throat, April Mahoney was unable to say the name of the man who shot her and killed a friend.

But Mahoney managed to nod affirmatively when she was shown a picture of the alleged shooter, police say.

She nodded yes and her eyes welled with tears when she saw the picture of Randall Williams, according to police. Weeks later, on Dec. 24, 1998, Mahoney died from her wounds.

“It was like God let her live that long so she could tell what happened,” said prosecutor Michael Duarte.

Mahoney’s dying identification will be one of the pivotal pieces of evidence in the upcoming capital murder trial of Williams and Kenneth Leighton.

They face the death sentence if convicted of murdering Mahoney and James Navaroli, who was about to testify in a criminal case against Leighton.

Mahoney and Navaroli had been placed in a witness protection program. But both had voluntarily left it just before they were killed.

Jury selection is underway for the trial, which is unusual because the two co-defendants will be in the same courtroom at the same time but will be tried separately, with two juries.

Prosecutors contend that Leighton, who was a defendant in an earlier burglary case, didn’t want Navaroli and Mahoney to testify against him. Leighton mistakenly believed that a burglary conviction would be his third strike and lead to a lengthy prison sentence, police said.

“Here you have the witnesses in [Leighton’s] case who were killed. He was a natural suspect in this case,” Duarte said.

Case Is Largely Circumstantial

Authorities allege that Leighton hired his friend, Williams, to do the killing.

Defense attorneys say that Leighton, 37, and Williams, 36, are not guilty, that witnesses against them are not credible and that the victims had other enemies who wanted them dead.

Navaroli once told police that he had turned in 15 drug dealers, said Deputy Public Defender Michael Gottlieb.

Duarte said there was “no documented evidence” that the victims had ever been police informants, and that the victims entered witness protection only because Leighton had threatened Navaroli.

In a phone conversation, according to court records, Leighton allegedly called Navaroli “a rat.”

“Don’t let me catch you driving down the street. . . . You’re dead, and there’s nowhere you can go,” prosecutors have alleged that Leighton said.

But the two victims left the witness protection program despite police warnings against returning to West Hills, where Navaroli allegedly sold methamphetamine. They “pocketed the money and left the program,” Gottlieb said.

The two were ambushed a month later, in November 1998.

The trial before Superior Court Judge Terry A. Green is expected to last three to four months.

With two juries, there will be multiple opening statements and closing arguments. When Green makes a ruling, it might apply to one defendant but not the other. When attorneys need to confer with the judge, one jury might shuffle out of the courtroom, but not the other.

Prosecutors plan to call as many as 100 witnesses to prove what is largely a circumstantial case. Many witnesses will be drug abusers, drug dealers and convicts, past and present--many of them friends and associates of the defendants.

“The [prosecution] witnesses are horribly incredible,” said Deputy Alternate Public Defender Henry Hall, who represents Leighton. He called them “the most untrustworthy group of witnesses” imaginable.

Also expected to testify is Mahoney’s mother and sister.