Oakland (UPI), Thursday, October 27th, 1977 -- A Tailor has testified that he recalls being beaten up in the apartment of Black Panther Party leader Huey Newton, but he's had a lapse of memory about the details.
Under prosecution questioning, Callins said his blanking out the episode was not related to what the state claims was an assassination attempt on the life of a key witness last weekend.
The tailor has, however, been under police protection since Sunday when a group of gunmen attempted to storm an apartment next to that of the witness, prostitute Raphaelle Jeannette Gary. One gunman was slain when the woman who occuped the apartment grabbed a .38 revolver and fired through the door.
The hearing is being held to determine if there is sufficient evidence to try Newton, who returned from Cuban exile in July on charges he killed the teenager, Kathleen Smith, and assaulted Callins.
Callins listened from the witness stand, a worried expression on his face, as prosecutor Tom Orloff played a tape recording made at a Redwood City hospital August 18th, 1974 in which Callins told police Newton pistol-whipped him for calling Newton "baby."
Newton, 35, nattily dressed in a light beige suit, stared at Callins who frequently closed his eyes and buried his chin in his hands.
In the tape, Callins with slurred speech said Newton had been drinking and complained to him of being ripped off by people.
He said Newton wanted him to make some suits for his relatives but that when he called him "baby," Newton "cracked me" across the back of the head witha pistol and kicked him in the head and stomach.
Callins testified Newton hit him numerous times with two hand guns and said he also had a rifle "and was going to blow my head off."
Callins said at one point he hurled Newton back against the wall, but "I couldn't be no match" for the younger man. He said "there was blood everywhere" and Newton's associates finally drive him home after he refused to make a tape recording saying he had molested the Panther leader.
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