Arguments heard in bid to reopen Potts case

The family of Marcus Potts will have to wait a little longer to hear whether the man convicted of stabbing the 11-year-old boy more than 44 times gets a second murder trial.

After a daylong hearing on Friday, Hennepin County District Judge Jay Quam said he will rule as soon as he can, probably within two weeks, on whether to give Eugene Fort a second trial. Fort, a crack dealer, was convicted in late May of killing the boy in December 1990.

Marcus, who was home alone, had interrupted Fort as he tried to burglarize the family's north Minneapolis home.

Four men -- all with criminal records -- testified in the hearing that tested the substantial courtroom skills of defense lawyer Michael Colich and Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Judy Johnston. The families of both Fort and Marcus sat in the front rows for the entire session.

Fort cried as Henry Newsom, a self-described drug dealer and career criminal who was a prison mate of Paul Rice, Fort's cousin, said Rice had confessed to killing Marcus. Newsom said Rice approached him on the day Fort was convicted.

Rice and Fort were together on the night of the killing. A key piece of evidence in Fort's trial was small DNA samples taken from blood at the house where the two men were staying. The samples were determined to belong to Marcus, and footprints from the Potts' home led to the house.

After Fort's conviction, Colich petitioned for a new trial on the grounds that Rice, who remains in prison, had confessed to the crime.

Johnston sought to shred the defense's case. She played a recording of a phone conversation Newsom made to his girlfriend from prison.

In that call, Newsom told her that the supposed confession to him by Rice was something Newsom had made up. "He didn't tell me nothing," Newsom said on the recording.

In court, Newsom said he was lying to his girlfriend so she wouldn't become upset with him for getting involved.

Newsom testified that he was endangering his life by becoming a "snitch." He said that when he is released, possibly early next year, he will be in danger when he returns home to north Minneapolis, where people live by a "criminal code."

Johnston didn't buy it. She asked rhetorically whether he wouldn't be viewed as a hero because "you tried to get somebody off a murder beef?"

Colich then called Rice's acquaintance Tyrone Washington, who testified that he had heard Rice say Fort was "dumber than a box of rocks." Washington also said he heard Rice say he had fooled police because he was ambidextrous.

Johnston asked him, "Bottom line, Mr. Washington, we're trying to figure out: Did Mr. Rice confess a murder to you?" Washington said no.

The defense rested with just the two witnesses, and prosecutors called David Michael Carriger, a fellow jail inmate, who said only that Rice told him that his cousin was trying to blame him for the murder.

Prosecutors then called Anthony Lee, a witness initially called by Colich, who then declined to ask him questions.

The prosecution contends that Lee is a cousin or uncle to Fort who also has ties to the Chicago-based El Rukn gang founded by Fort and Rice's uncle Jeff Fort, who is now in the Supermax federal prison in Florence, Colo. Testimony also indicated that Rice is a high-level member of the Black Gangster Disciples whose street name is "Face."

Lee called Colich's office in late May and told a woman -- in a recorded conversation from jail -- that Rice had admitted to shooting the little boy. He also called a woman whom he called "sister" and told her, "Tell the family whatever you need, I got them."

Johnston portrayed the calls, including Lee's inability to get the method of the killing correct, as evidence of a conspiracy.

Colich argued the opposite -- that if there were a conspiracy, they would at minimum have gotten the method of killing correct.

He asked Lee, "Did you ever conspire with anyone to concoct a story to assist Mr. Fort?" Lee said no.

Johnston said Lee's testimony was "riddled with perjury."

Rochelle Olson • 612-673-1747

Rochelle Olson • raolson@startribune.com