Carroll has testified that Grosso held him down once they reached the empty garage so that Rizzitello could shoot him. Grosso testified Wednesday that he had just pulled Carroll's car into a side lot near Antonello's, and almost had the car parked, when he heard a shot.
Grosso: "I felt something metal hit my head, and I heard a loud boom, a tremendous noise, and then a ringing in my ears. . . . I thought I had been shot. I ran."
Grosso had an apartment just a few blocks away, and he told jurors that he ran there. Afterward, he said, he treated a wound to his head and then headed for the Balboa Bay Club, where he spent the next two days.
But prosecutor Evans hit Grosso hard, claiming clear contradictions in Grosso's testimony.
For example, Grosso admitted that the FBI was paying him at the time for information on Carroll's activities. Yet Grosso told the jurors he deliberately tried not to hear anything Carroll said at his meetings.
Also, Grosso told the jurors that Carroll admitted to him that he was responsible for at least a dozen murders. But Grosso also said that when he drove Carroll on business, the financier made it a point to prevent Grosso from knowing what he was doing most of the time.
On direct examination, Grosso said Rizzitello angrily told Carroll in the car: "Do you just want to kill everybody?" On cross-examination, Grosso said that Rizzitello asked the question at the restaurant. When Evans pointed out the discrepancy, Grosso said that Rizzitello said it both in the restaurant and in the car.
Also, Grosso indicated to jurors that he went to the Balboa Bay Club to hide out because he was too scared to stay in his apartment. But Evans produced records to show that Grosso was already checked into the Balboa Bay Club before the shooting occurred.
Grosso attorney William Yacobozzi Jr. has told jurors that Carroll had numerous enemies and that any one of them might have tried to kill him.
Grosso denied that he knew anything about an attempt by Rizzitello to take over the Mustang.
Carroll included Grosso as one of the attackers because he was upset at learning that Grosso had spied on him for the FBI, Grosso speculated on the witness stand Wednesday.
