Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.metro From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Witness says she endured racial slurs Date: Fri, 30 Oct 92 15:33:28 EST Message-ID: \SE B;METROPOLITAN \HD Witness says she endured racial slurs \BY Arlo Wagner \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES A 19-year-old Wheaton woman testified yesterday that John Randolph Ayers Jr. walked toward her yelling racial epithets three days before the night he is accused of beating a black woman and spraying charcoal lighter fluid on her. Lisa Walker's testimony about the Feb. 29 incident came in the fourth day of the trial of Mr. Ayers, 22, of Wheaton, who is charged with racially motivated crimes in the beating of Johnnie McCrae, 39, early March 3. Circuit Judge Paul Weinstein yesterday cautioned the jury that it must consider Mrs. Walker's testimony only as it might pertain to Mr. Ayers' racial attitudes. Jurors must not otherwise consider the earlier incident when it begins deliberations in Mr. Ayers' case, the judge said. Mr. Ayers and a co-defendant are to be tried later on charges arising out of the first incident, in which a teen-age boy was beaten. The youth, Terry Barber, and Mrs. Walker are expected to testify again then. Yesterday, Terry testified only about a seven-page written statement he had given to police. Under cross-examination by defense attorney Victor Crawford, the youth acknowledged that the statement attributed no racial slurs to Mr. Ayers on Feb. 29. The defense argued yesterday that the prosecution has little evidence that the attack on Mrs. McCrae was racially motivated. Eight character witnesses, seven of them black, have testified that they are friends of Mr. Ayers, have socialized with him and that he has never demonstrated any racial prejudice. Also yesterday, at Mr. Crawford's request, police detectives were called back to the witness stand to testify that they had not asked that Mrs. McCrae's clothes be tested for lighter fluid traces after the incident. Dr. Bernhard Witkop, a National Institutes of Health chemist, testified that charcoal lighter fluid traces could have been found on Mrs. McCrae's clothing if tested soon enough. There had been contradictory evidence about the lighter fluid, which police found under the shirt of Mr. Ayers' co-defendant, Sean Thomas Riley, 20, when he was arrested. Riley pleaded guilty in the attack. Judge Weinstein recessed the trial to 11 a.m. Monday after three hours of testimony. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM