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Alzinnia Keyes targeted three drug traffickers in her brief work as a Drug Enforcement Administration informant, and one of them allegedly had her killed.
A federal prosecutor said yesterday in the first day of a trial that Michael Waggoner killed Keyes on behalf of a Tucson drug dealer.
Waggoner, 37, opened fire on Keyes in March 1998 to keep her from testifying against Terile Williams, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Chapman.
But Waggoner's defense attorney said prosecutors have the wrong Williams. It was actually Anthony Williams, a Los Angeles-based cocaine dealer unrelated to Terile, who ordered the hit, Richard Lougee told jurors.
Waggoner went on trial yesterday in Tucson's U.S. District Court, facing charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with a witness. He faces the possibility of life in prison if convicted of the murder charge.
Since Keyes' murder, both Terile Williams and Anthony Williams have been convicted of drug crimes, partially on the strength of information Keyes provided. They are serving prison sentences.
Keyes herself had served three years in prison before she was arrested by South Tucson police in January 1998 and agreed to inform on others for the DEA. Under the agency's monitoring, she ordered cocaine from both Terile Williams and Anthony Williams that month, as well as from another man.
Revenge arrived two months later.
In his opening statement yesterday, Chapman described what amounted to an open-air hit on a block crowded with people.
Waggoner arrived in the 2300 block of East Monterey Vista - about a mile north of Kino Sports Park - at about 6 in the evening on March 12, 1998, Chapman said. He was a passenger in a white Oldsmobile Cutlass driven by co-defendant Freddie Taylor, the prosecutor said.
Waggoner walked up to a house where a few young men were hanging out and asked if they had seen Keyes, who was then walking down the sidewalk nearby, Chapman said. Waggoner turned toward her and fired five or six shots with a 9 mm pistol, he said.
Two of the shots hit Keyes, who was later taken by ambulance to a hospital. On the way, Chapman said, Keyes told a Tucson Fire Department paramedic to contact DEA Special Agent Robert Genualdi and tell him ``that Terile's people did it.''
Keyes, 26, died from her bullet wounds on March 24.
While Chapman said he would introduce evidence that Terile Williams made threatening statements against Keyes, Lougee said Anthony Williams made similar threats but that the investigators didn't consider him as a suspect.
``What I think happened in this case is the agents got tunnel vision,'' Lougee said.
The trial is expected to last through next week before Judge John Roll.
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