LAS VEGAS (AP) - A former Las Vegas Strip performer who cried in front of a jury a day earlier remained dry-eyed through tough questioning Friday from a prosecutor who cast him as a self-centered philanderer and liar who misled the ex-girlfriend he ended up killing in December 2010.
“You are a coward, correct?” prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo asked, prodding Jason Omar Griffith with a word jurors heard Deborah Flores Narvaez shouting in the background of a 911 call that Griffith made to police in March 2010.
Griffith’s defense attorneys objected.
“Let me rephrase,” DiGiacomo said. “You are a liar, correct?”
“Yes, sir,” Griffith responded.
He began conceding Thursday under questioning by defense attorney Abel Yanez that he misled and lied to police in the weeks after Flores was reported missing and before her dismembered body was found in tubs of concrete in a vacant home in January 2011.
On Friday, DiGiacomo pinned Griffith down repeatedly about instances when he told Flores one thing but did another so he could juggle girlfriends and casual sexual partners - all while Flores said she was pregnant and needed his attention to her condition and plans for abortion.
“And when you want something, you’re more than willing to lie about it?” DiGiacomo continued.
“Yes, sir,” Griffith said.
Griffith said under questioning that he accompanied Flores to an abortion clinic in May 2010. But he maintained several times during testimony that he was never sure she was really pregnant.
DiGiacomo repeatedly used prolific text message and email records to show that from the time they first met at a football game in late 2009 Griffith led Flores to believe they were in a monogamous and exclusive relationship.
The prosecutor capped the day shredding the evidence value of a threatening note left on a napkin on Griffith’s car outside the Mirage resort, where Griffith performed in the Cirque du Soleil show “Love” under the name “Blu.”
An email exchange showed Griffith’s housemate and best friend, Louis Colombo, admitted placing the note as a prank.
Griffith insisted in the witness box that he thought the note was authentic at the time, and that was all that mattered.
Friday’s sparring set the stage for fireworks Monday, when Griffith returns to the stand and DiGiacomo will ask him about the fateful argument that led Griffith to grab Flores and squeeze the last breath out of her at his home in December 2010.
Debbie Flores performed in the Luxor hotel-casino’s racy “Fantasy” revue. She was 31 when she died.
Griffith has testified that he and Flores had what amounted to a “Fatal Attraction” relationship, and that she stalked, threatened, harassed and assaulted him when he tried to limit their time together.
He told the jury the fatal argument was about Flores’ claim that she was pregnant again, and her demand that he quit seeing another dancer he’d been dating and devote his full attention to her for another abortion and recuperation.
Griffith, 35, could face life in state prison if he is convicted of murder. He maintains that he was defending himself when Flores died. But DiGiacomo has said Griffith never mentioned self-defense to police or his friends before his arrest in January 2011.
DiGiacomo tried Friday to show that arguments between Flores and Griffith didn’t begin until early March, when Flores said she was pregnant for the first time and Griffith began pulling away.
“She wanted you to be there for her because she was scared about being pregnant,” DiGiacomo said.
“The pregnancy wasn’t the catalyst for that,” Griffith replied. “We started these ticky-tack arguments before she was pregnant. Or allegedly pregnant.”
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