Witness denies role in slaying

MOSCOW - Lane Thomas, the purported alternate perpetrator in the David J. Meister murder retrial, summed up his testimony here Tuesday with one sentence.

"I had nothing to do with the murder of Tonya Hart," Thomas said.

Meister, 28, is charged with shooting Hart in the face and chest on Dec. 11, 2001. Meister's attorneys, however, claim Thomas, while in jail, admitted to other inmates that he pulled the trigger.

Called as an adverse witness by the defense, Thomas told jurors any talk of Tonya Hart's death behind bars was criminal bravado designed, in part, to give him stature and a measure of safety behind bars.

"I can pretty much hold my own now," said Thomas, who remains in the Idaho prison system on an unrelated felony conviction and appeared in court wearing a suit and tie. Thomas, under cross-examination by Latah County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Michelle Evans, admitted he's been perpetually in trouble with the law and prone to lying.

"I'm constantly in and out of jail. Why not look at me?" Thomas said of his being questioned shortly after Hart died.

Meister, who was convicted after what he claims was a false confession, is on trial again for Hart's death. He's charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder for allegedly agreeing to take $1,100 from Hart's boyfriend, Jesse (Shorty) Linderman, to do the killing. The first trial conviction was vacated on appeal by the Idaho Supreme Court.

Thomas said he knew Linderman as a drug dealer and suspects he was the intended target of a gang hit from Spokane. "We all think it wasn't Tonya's bullet," he said of the circle of people he knew at the time of the shooting. "I still think it was meant for Shorty. He's a drug dealer. And drug dealers either end up in jail or dead."

Thomas' theory, however, flies in the face of the prosecution's allegation that Linderman, who had a troubled relationship with Hart, hired Meister to do the shooting. Linderman still lives and works in the area and was called to testify, but opted to remain silent. No charges are pending against him.

Earlier in the day, Meister finished nearly nine hours of testimony, sticking to his story that he confessed under duress and was home playing games and drinking with friends when Hart was killed at her trailer home about one mile north of Moscow.

"I reasserted my innocence the next time I talked to anyone who'd listen," Meister said, recalling the days he spent in jail after being arrested for the murder. He said his false confession was an attempt to avoid the death sentence because investigators told him the evidence against him was essentially insurmountable.

"I just felt I had to, this was it, I could end up on death row," Meister said of an interrogation in August of 2002 that resulted in him confessing three times to authorities.

Meister said he gleaned details from a newspaper story, things he had heard around town and specifics offered by investigators to craft a confession that would bring an end to the pressure he was enduring from police.

But Evans, during cross-examination, listed many details she said Meister offered on his own, suggesting such evidence could only be known by the killer.

"That would be a lie," Meister said, when asked about investigators saying they never made threats about death row.

The 15th day of testimony ended early after another prison inmate testified outside the presence of the jury. The man said Thomas told him he actually shot Hart. Defense attorneys Thomas Whitney, of Moscow, and Scott Chapman, of Lewiston, have not decided if they'll put the inmate in front of the jury. Part of the problem, they said, is jurors are not aware Meister has already been in prison. In fact, the five women and nine men, all Latah County residents, were selected because they said they are supposedly unaware of a previous trial.

Before dismissing jurors, 2nd District Judge Carl B. Kerrick, of Lewiston, informed them testimony is expected to last through this week, with closing arguments perhaps by Monday. Deliberations would then start, but Kerrick said he plans to honor the four-day Thanksgiving holiday. If a verdict isn't reached, he said he'll call the panel back into session the following Monday.

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Johnson may be contacted at djohnson@lmtribune.com or (208) 883-0564.