Suspect Was in Jail at Time of Murder, His Attorney Says : Crime: Lawyer claims that revelation impeaches credibility of a key witness in the current case and an earlier one. Defendant was convicted of first killing.

A transient charged with murder can prove his innocence because he was in jail at the time of the killing--a lucky coincidence that his attorney hopes will clear him of a previous murder conviction as well.

The revelation could lead to dismissal of murder charges against Paul Anthony Diaz, 30, without a trial--ironically, a setback for his defense strategy.

Diaz’s trial on charges of killing a suspected drug dealer was scheduled to start today. It was to be based largely on testimony by Tammie Freeman, 29, of Tujunga, who was also the chief prosecution witness in a 1991 trial that sent Diaz to prison for first-degree murder, said Diaz’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Howard C. Waco.

In both cases, Freeman--herself an admitted drug dealer--said Diaz confessed the murders to her.

Proof that she was willing to lie about the second killing should show that she probably lied about the first one, Waco said.

Diaz faces trial in the killing of Ignacio Larios, 29, of Sun Valley on Aug. 16, 1990. The case was to be based on Freeman’s testimony and on a police investigation that produced a witness who identified Diaz as the gunman, along with three other informants--including Diaz’s ex-girlfriend--who said Diaz told them he had done the killing.

“Based on that, he would have been finished if he hadn’t been in jail at the time,” Waco said.

But Diaz spent most of the spring and summer of 1990 in prison or jail on unrelated burglary and probation violation charges, Waco said. A copy of a Los Angeles County Jail booking record shows Diaz was in custody when Larios was killed and was not released until Aug. 21, 1990, five days after the slaying, he said.

“We also have records of toll calls on Aug. 15 from jail to Diaz’s mother’s house,” Waco said.

Billy Webb, head of the district attorney’s office in San Fernando, denied any improprieties in the handling of Diaz’s cases and said his office will drop the pending murder charge if Diaz’s jail record can be confirmed. He criticized Waco for not disclosing the fact earlier.

“If they had this information, why didn’t they come forward . . . instead of having this defendant waiting with a possible death penalty hanging over his head?” Webb said.

Prosecutors learned about the alibi only after Diaz mentioned it to a courtroom bailiff, Webb said.

But Waco said he wanted the case to go to trial so he could establish in court that Freeman is a liar, thus bolstering Diaz’s chance to reverse his murder conviction on appeal.

“There is no chance to reverse the original conviction unless we can show new evidence,” Waco said. “Part of that would have been the impeachment of Freeman.”

Waco said Los Angeles police Detectives Woodrow Parks and Robert Bogison badgered informants during recorded interviews into agreeing that Diaz had confessed to the murder. The two Foothill Division detectives also investigated Diaz’s original murder case, Waco said.

“Waco is a liar,” Parks said in an interview. “If I find out a guy is innocent, I would be the first to come forward. We spent a lot of time on this case and did a thorough investigation.’

Parks and another detective were the subject of a federal court lawsuit last year alleging they tried to frame the wife of a 1990 murder victim who was found stabbed to death in the couple’s Shadow Hills home. Charges against the woman were dropped for lack of evidence.

A judge and jury cleared the two officers of any wrongdoing in the case in September.

Diaz is serving a 30-year prison sentence for the Feb. 2, 1991, murder of Glen Scott Gilbert, 21, of Tujunga. In that case, Freeman testified that Diaz told her he “emptied his clip” into Gilbert and then dumped the body in a storm drain in the San Gabriel Mountains.

Freeman, Diaz and Gilbert were involved in using and selling illegal drugs together, according to court testimony.

Evidence against Diaz also included a book of tattoo designs and some jewelry found in his possession that Freeman testified had belonged to Gilbert. Diaz’s defense attorney at the time said Diaz had gotten the items during a burglary of Freeman’s house.

A jury convicted Diaz of murder and burglary in June of last year.

“Tammie Freeman was the sole witness in the first case, and a major witness in the second case, even though she was an admitted drug dealer and Gilbert was her drug runner,” said Charles Klum, the deputy public defender in Diaz’s murder trial. “She wasn’t clean. She lied and lied and lied.”

After being arrested on an unrelated charge, Freeman told police during a taped interview in January of this year that Diaz had called her from prison over the Thanksgiving weekend and threatened her for testifying against him. She said that during the telephone conversation Diaz admitted killing Larios.