PASADENA, Calif. — Prosecutor Philip Wojdak called his final witness Monday in the murder case involving adult performer Felicia Tang.
But testimony questioning Los Angeles County Sheriff's Det. Brian Schoonmaker will continue this morning, bowing to defendant Brian Randone's attorneys, who for the first time will lay out their defense.
Randone, Tang's live-in boyfriend,is accused of murdering her in 2009. The trial is in its seventh day.
On Monday, Monrovia Police Officer Thomas Montes, the first person to arrive at Tang and Randone's apartment, took the stand.
Montes, who responded to Randone's 911 call to operators, said that Randone broke down in tears after paramedics were unable to resuscitate Tang and said, "Is there anything you guys can do, can't you guys do anything."
Montes also said that when he responded to the residence, Randone appeared at the door and said he'd been delayed because he was attempting to perform CPR on Tang. But the CPR claim conflicts with another account made in testimony last week from a paramedic who was on the scene.
Also on Monday was testimony from Dr. Cyrus Rangan, the director of the Los Angeles County Department of Health's Bureau of Toxicology, who said that Tang's GHB level was not proof she died of an overdose.
"Quantitatively, every single person is different," Rangan said. "The drug level itself is not what you can use to determine lethality."
Randone's defense in its opening statement claimed a deadly dose of the drug GHB stopped Tang from breathing after she sustained 320 wounds while stumbling around her apartment and falling through closet doors.
But Dr. Ajay Panchal, the Los Angeles County medical examiner who performed Tang's autopsy, has ruled her death a homicide by suffocation.
Felicia Tang became an online adult top draw for seven years, from 2001 to 2008. She starred in several Playboy TV shows, appeared in several Peach DVD movies, and she starred in the pay-per-view series “Strip Poker Tournament.” She also owned softcore site FeliciaTang.com.
Randone, an Omaha, Neb., native, is a former minister and mime who was featured on a 2000 FOX reality show "The Sexiest Bachelor in America."
