Rap mogul sent threats to prison, inmate says

After his conviction, Anderson won a new hearing in 2002 to determine whether his trial attorney was ineffective and to examine evidence that he said showed he was in Mississippi the day the murder took place. Following the hearing, a judge denied his petition for release, finding that Anderson and his supporters had tried to fabricate evidence and "perpetrate an elaborate fraud upon the court."

From behind bars, Anderson became involved in the Wallace family lawsuit, claiming to have information about the slaying. Attorneys for the slain rapper's family contend that a rogue LAPD officer orchestrated the fatal 1997 shooting of Wallace, also known as Notorious B.I.G.

Anderson testified Thursday that he spoke to LAPD homicide detectives about the killing.

He implicated former LAPD Officer David Mack in the slaying.

But last summer, Anderson recanted, telling lawyers representing Wallace's relatives that he had lied and did not know Mack.

At one time, LAPD detectives had investigated Mack in connection with Wallace's slaying.

A theory of one detective was that Mack orchestrated the killing on behalf of Knight, who was feuding with another rap label on the East Coast. Knight and Mack have both denied the allegations and Wallace's murder remains unsolved.

In his own murder case, Anderson and his supporters continued gathering evidence in his bid to prove that he was in Mississippi during the killing. He was granted a new hearing, which began last month in Judge William C. Ryan's downtown courtroom.

In recent weeks, Philips said, he has kept in regular contact with Anderson's family, though he has not been covering the hearing for the newspaper. Over the weekend, Philips said, Anderson's wife set up a conference call with Anderson from jail.

Anderson, he said, asked for his help. Philips said he told him he could do nothing more.

"He just said, 'I'm hung out here all by myself.' I said, 'I don't know what I can do. There's nothing I can do,' " Philips said.

Philips, who left The Times on Friday, has won many awards for his reporting, including a Pulitzer Prize in 1999. But some of his work has also been criticized. Earlier this year, the newspaper retracted one of his stories after it was revealed to have been based partly on fabricated documents.

Outside of court, Anderson's attorney David L. Bernstein said FBI agents had informed him in January that they were investigating the allegations and provided him with copies of the alleged notes. He said they included veiled threats that suggested someone was keeping watch on Anderson's family.

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jack.leonard@latimes.com