DRUG DEALER ACCUSED OF IMPLICATING LAWYER TO GET LENIENCY

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. --A drug dealer so violent he was dubbed "Billy the
Kid" was accused Monday of trying to win a reduced sentence by
implicating an associate and a prominent defense attorney in a killing.

The dealer, Billie Gomez, who pleaded guilty last year to the 1996
Bridgeport murder, finished his testimony Monday in the trial of his
associate, Eddie Mercado. Gomez said he and Mercado committed the
killing under the order of another drug dealer, Frank Estrada, who
also pleaded guilty to the murder last year.

The victim, Aida Escalera, was a potential witness in another state
murder case in which attorney James Ruane represented the defendant.
Ruane has not been charged and has denied any involvement.

"You're hearing it from convicted defendants who are doing all they
can to get a reduced sentence, including dreaming up evidence against
'the big fish' that they think can bring them that reduced sentence,"
said Ruane's lawyer, Joseph Martini. "Hopefully, when the time comes,
the jury will see through that."

Gomez testified last week that Estrada told him the victim would
"mess up Ruane's case."

"She was a witness in Ruane's case, I know that much," Gomez
testified under cross examination Monday in U.S. District Court.
"That's the reason he gave me."

"You know James Ruane is a pretty big fish that the government is
interested in, don't you?" asked Mercado's attorney, Frederic Pratt.

"I'm pretty sure he is. He's a lawyer," Gomez said.

"They asked you a lot of questions about James Ruane, right," Pratt continued.

"They asked me what I knew," Gomez said.

"And you know he's a lawyer and if you give up a lawyer, or if you
had anything to say about a lawyer, that could really help you in
terms of getting sentenced, isn't that right?" Pratt said.

"Pretty sure it could," Gomez responded.

Estrada, who is expected to take the stand later this week, will
testify that he ordered Mercado and Gomez to kill Escalera "as part
of an arrangement" he made with Ruane, according to court documents
filed by prosecutors. Prosecutors say Estrada had contacted Ruane for
help in another murder case involving his sister, Frances, and her
daughter, Star.

"Ruane told Estrada that it would not be a bad thing if one of the
witnesses disappeared," prosecutors said in the motion they filed.
"Frank Estrada understood from his conversation with Ruane that Ruane
wanted him to get rid of Escalera in exchange for Ruane's assistance
to Frances and Star, whom the police wanted to question."

Mercado's attorney challenges that account, saying in court papers
that Estrada ordered the murder because Escalera was a witness to
another murder Estrada had committed. Pratt also tried to show
inconsistencies between Gomez's testimony and what he told police
several years ago.

Prosecutors said they sought Ruane's removal in 2000 in another case
after police discovered government documents provided to Ruane in
Estrada's apartment, before Estrada was arrested, that detailed the
brand names of Estrada's heroin. Around the same time, Estrada
stopped using those brand names, authorities said.

Gomez said Ruane helped him get off a list of gang members while
Gomez was in prison in the mid-1990s with Estrada. He also said that
after a drug raid, he was released on bond after Estrada arranged for
Ruane to represent him.

Gomez insisted he had a genuine change of outlook after a lifetime of
drug-related violence. He spoke matter of factly about much of the
violence, but his voice softened as he talked of murdering Escalera.

"The only benefit I'm getting is I can leave this courtroom and know
I did the right thing and go to sleep at night," Gomez said.

Gomez spent much of the day testifying about the inner workings of a
drug operation that sold heroin with names such as "PLO," "suicide"
and "homicide." He began dealing as early as 5 a.m. when the addicts
came looking for drugs and assaulted and pistol whipped rivals to
expand his turf.