Witness contradicts old testimony in Santiago trial

As Assistant District Attorney Carlos Vega questioned an obviously hostile prosecution witness yesterday in the retrial of Wilfredo Santiago in a cop-killing, the witness raised his voice, said he didn't recall much and acted defiantly.

"I'm trying to think, and frankly, I'm getting a headache," the witness said at one point, to which Vega replied that he, too, was getting a headache.

"I can't help yours," the witness shot back.

The witness, 41, had testified in Santiago's 1986 trial that shortly before Police Officer Thomas Trench was slain, the witness saw Santiago drop a gun while riding a bike in Spring Garden.

Yesterday, he told a Common Pleas jury that his prior testimony wasn't true.

The prosecutor has asked that the names of civilian witnesses not be printed for their safety.

Authorities allege that Santiago shot Trench, 43, twice in the head as the officer sat in his patrol car on 17th Street near Spring Garden about 2 a.m. May 28, 1985.

They contend that Santiago, 44, intended to kill another officer, Ismael Cruz, because he harbored anger over a police chase and fight the day before. On that day, Cruz drove car No. 912; on May 28, car 912 was assigned to Trench.

During a 1986 trial, a jury convicted Santiago of first-degree murder. The state Superior Court in 1991 ordered a new trial based on trial-judge and police errors. The retrial did not take place until now - 23 years after Trench's murder - because of lengthy legal proceedings.

Yesterday's key witness confirmed that as he was sitting on the steps of a church on 19th Street near Wallace with his girlfriend, Santiago passed them on a bike and said, "Hi."

"Did you see anything unusual?" Vega asked.

"No! I didn't," the witness said."Did you tell her [your then-girlfriend] he [Santiago] dropped a gun?" Vega asked.

"No!" the witness replied.

Vega then reviewed a statement to police in which the witness said he saw Santiago about 1 or 1:30 a.m. May 28. Yesterday, the witness said he actually saw Santiago at 9 or 10 p.m. May 27.

When Vega asked what Santiago was wearing, the witness said he didn't recall, adding, "I don't remember the last time I pissed."

Vega then read part of a transcript from Santiago's 1986 trial in which this witness testified that he had seen Santiago drop a gun from a newspaper he was carrying, then pick it up, as he rode by.

During cross-examination, defense attorney David Rudovsky played a tape of a recorded interview he had with the witness in 1992. On the tape, Rudovsky asked the man if his 1986 trial testimony about seeing Santiago drop a gun had been truthful.

"No, it was not," the witness said on the tape.

Asked why he testified that way, the witness replied on the tape, "I was threatened that day" by police.

After this witness finished testifying, Vega recalled this man's former girlfriend to the stand.

She testified Tuesday that the two of them had been sitting on the church steps between 1 and 1:30 a.m. May 28 when they saw Santiago pass them on a bike.

Asked yesterday what her then-boyfriend told her he had seen Santiago drop, the woman testified: "He said, he thinks he saw a gun. And I said, 'It's crazy. It's crazy.' " *