I had a free morning today, so I dropped into Dept. V at Van Nuys Superior Court to get a little more testimony in the Paul Wesley Baker case. Mr. Baker's ex-drug buddy, Juan Calhoun, was on the stand, under cross-examination from the defendant's private attorney, Norman H. Kallen.

Calhoun, a large, shaven-headed man with a Fu Manchu mustache and three years of sobriety, was very calm as he testified about his short-time roommate, Baker. The two were crashing at a Motel 6 the night Baker allegedly raped and killed his girlfriend, Judy Palmer. Calhoun said he'd done crack with Baker before, but that he'd since kicked the habit.

Kallen, much more aggressive than he was when Palmer's daughter testified earlier, tried to highlight gaps in Calhoun's recollection and problems with his memory. Lots of the talk centered around a particularly obscene phrase Calhoun said Baker used to describe his evening's activities with Palmer the night he allegedly killed her.

"He said he went and beat the p---- out of her," Calhoun testified (note-- he's using a strong vaginal euphemism here).
"That's a slang term, right?" Kallen replied. "A term people use to say they had sex with someone?"
"Yes, sir," Calhoun responded.
"It doesn't mean that they beat them up?" Kallen continued.
"No, sir," Calhoun said.

After congratulating the witness on getting off heroin, Kallen brought up the man's drug use numerous times and tried to emphasize discrepancies between Calhoun's earlier statements about scratches he'd seen on Baker's face on the alleged night of the murder. Calhoun admitted there were gaps in his memory, but remained steadfast in his recollection of the particular euphemism.

"Sir, with the amount of drugs you've consumed in your lifetime, is there a chance it's affected your memory?" Kallen asked.
"Yes, I'd say that's a possibility," Calhoun allowed.

The trial could drag on several months, so we'll see if the jury buys what Calhoun had to say, or whether other testimony will supplant it altogether.