BY DANNY O'ROURKE
STAFF WRITER

LOS ANGELES -- Detective Kevin Wakefield repeated the bulk of his testimony from the first Painseeker Murder Trial during Wednesday's proceedings in the first-degree murder trial of Sharon Wolfe in Los Angeles Superior Court.  However, Wakefield carefully altered his testimony due to the first trial's outcome.

The two trials first gained notoriety when it was learned that a web site was involved in re-starting the stalled homicide investigation, even informing police of evidence that was critical to the eventual prosecution of Douglass and Wolfe.  The web site, titled Painseeker, was developed by the victim's husband, Lance Wagner, who started the site as a means to direct his grief.

Wolfe, a professional bodyguard, is accused of murdering Raychel Wagner, a rising music star under her protection.  During opening statements on Tuesday, Assistant District Attorney Thomas Andrews maintained that Wolfe was paid to murder Wagner.

During his testimony in the first trial, Wakefield presented a theory, based on evidence and analysis, that both Wolfe and Douglass were at the scene of the crime and took part in murdering Wagner.  At the time, the two were suspected of conspiring to murder Wagner as payback for an affair Wager had with Douglass' lover, Ken Kincaid.  The prosecution also asserted that Douglass was the person who anonymously paid for Wolfe's services.

In light of Douglass' acquittal, Wakefield altered his theory for his testimony in Wolfe's trial to assert that Wolfe acted alone in the crime.

As before, Wakefield used several photographs and illustrations to show the apartment and the apartment complex in which the crime was committed.  Wakefield testified that the police responded to a 911 call from Kyle McAllister at 12:30 a.m. on August 18, 2000.  When they arrived, police found McAllister in shock outside the complex and Raychel Wagner deceased laying face up in a hallway between the kitchen and living room in their apartment.

He said that despite the large amount of debris littering the apartment, he could trace the basic pattern of the struggle.  He theorized that the first struggle began in the living room and quickly escalated.  A number of items in the room had either been broken or thrown.  The most devastating impact had been against a wall in the living room, which Wagner had been thrown into.

The fight then proceeded to the dining room and kitchen, where it became deadly.  Wagner was attacked with a broken tequila bottle and had been struck numerous times.  She had fallen to the floor and bled profusely.  The  body had also been dragged approximately 10 feet into the hallway again, possibly to avoid immediate detection.

Wakefield stated that Wolfe arrived at the crime scene at approximately 1:00 a.m. and assaulted Kyle McAllister, accusing him of the crime based on a pattern of domestic disturbances between McAllister and Wagner.  Wolfe maintained that she wanted to make a statement to the police and would not leave until she had done so.  At 1:20 a.m. Wolfe was granted her request and taken in to give her statement.

During her statement, Wakefield noted that Wolfe implied that she had spent the evening at Safehaven with Geoffrey MacIntyre, her then-boyfriend, and Laura Douglass.  However, subsequent investigations learned that Wolfe had actually left a passed-out MacIntyre at Safehaven while she and Laura Douglass left the bar.  Wolfe eventually admitted this fact, but only after Laura Douglass had already told her story, including Wolfe's disappearance.

Andrews then guided Wakefield through his revised theory of the crime. He stated that Wolfe, after seeing Douglass leave Safehaven, left the bar herself.  With a heavily intoxicated MacIntyre passed out in the barroom booth, Wolfe knew that MacIntyre would be unable to effectively contradict her assertion that she had never left.

Wakefield then theorized that Wolfe beat Douglass to the apartment and murdered Wagner in the manner he had previously described.  After the murder, Wolfe was temporarily trapped in the apartment by the late-arriving Douglass.  Wakefield asserted that it was during this time that Wolfe dragged Wagner's body into the hallway to prevent immediate discovery had Douglass managed to pick the lock as she had attempted.

Wakefield also changed his theory with regard to the reason Douglass did not admit to being at the scene of the crime.  He theorized that Douglass could not be certain that Wolfe was the person was the other side of the door.  Therefore, by admitting that she was at the scene of the crime at the time the crime was committed, Douglass feared admitting that she had no alibi.

On cross-examination, defense attorney Wendy Timmerman pounced on Wakefield's theory regarding Douglass' reason for not admitting being at the scene of the crime.  Timmerman forced Wakefield to admit that it was also possible that Wolfe herself was not in the room, as there was no eyewitness that Wolfe had entered the room.  Therefore, it was possible that Wolfe was telling the truth when she later stated she had followed Douglass to the apartment complex and watched as she attempted to break into the apartment.

Timmerman also attacked the credibility of Wakefield's theory.  After allowing Wakefield to affirm his belief in his theory, Timmerman asked him if he was as confident in his current theory as he was in the one he had asserted only a month before.  Timmerman asked Wakefield how he could be so confident in his current "single assailant" theory after pitching a two-person theory during Laura Douglass' trial.  After an extensive battle of words, Wakefield admitted that it was still possible that the crime had been committed by two people.  He stated that because of the inability of the police to recover the murder weapon and any incriminating fingerprints on said weapon, there was a possibility that more than one person was involved.  However, he maintained that Wolfe was involved in the crime, and she was the only person who could tell police if she was the only person involved in the crime.

Timmerman replied, "That would be the case if she was the only person involved, wouldn't it?  But you're not even sure of that, are you?"

Changing subjects, Timmerman asked Wakefield how he had theorized that Wolfe obtained a bottle of tequila.  After stating that he believed it either came from their table or from behind the bar, Timmerman asked Wakefield if he was aware that Geoffrey MacIntyre had been drinking whiskey that evening, not tequila.  She also asked him if he was aware that Wolfe tipped a Safehaven bartender $100 to take care of MacIntyre, and that at no point did Wolfe ask for a bottle of tequila.  While Andrews' objections to both questions were sustained by Judge Michael Rodriguez, Timmerman's points were understood by the jury.

Testimony is scheduled to resume on Thursday with LAPD forensics expert Lisa Finnegan.