Veronica Garcia told a Denver jury Tuesday that Willie D. Clark was driving her boyfriend’s white Chevrolet Tahoe on New Year’s Eve 2006 and later asked her to hide the truck because it was used in a shooting.
Clark, 26, is on trial in Denver District Court on charges of killing Denver Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams and wounding two other passengers who were riding in the NFL player’s rented Hummer limousine early New Year’s Day 2007.
Garcia is the first prosecution witness to claim to have direct knowledge that Clark was driving the white Tahoe hours before Williams was killed.
But Clark’s defense attorney, Abraham Hutt, attacked Garcia’s credibility because she did not come forward to the police until after she was offered a deal on her federal drug case. She was facing 12 to 16 years in prison but will get only three if federal and state prosecutors believe she testified truthfully about the Williams case.
Garcia has a criminal record including stealing thousands of dollars from Sears, crack-cocaine dealing and vehicular assault.
Garcia testified she had been driving the Tahoe because her boyfriend, Brian Hicks, who owned the vehicle, was in jail on drug charges at the time.
She said that Clark’s CD player in his black Tahoe was not working, and he asked her to trade vehicles about a week before the fatal shooting.
On New Year’s Day, when Clark went to pick up Garcia from a halfway house where she was serving time on a probation violation, he told her there had been a shooting.
“On New Year’s Day, he said he had to get off on some n——, but I didn’t take it as being a homicide at that time,” Garcia said.
“What did you take that to mean?” asked prosecutor Tim Twining.
“That they probably had a shootout with someone,” she said.
“Did the defendant ask you about providing an alibi?” Twining asked.
“He just said if anybody asks you where I was last night, tell them I was with you,” Garcia said.
Clark was driving his own black Tahoe when he picked her up from the halfway house and told Garcia that the white Tahoe was “f—– up” and he asked her to park it for him.
Garcia claims the white Tahoe was parked in the Curtis Park area, and she drove it to her home in Green Valley Ranch and parked it in the garage.
On Jan. 2, 2007, Garcia testified, she went with Clark and Daniel “Ponytail” Harris near the scene of an argument that occurred outside the Shelter nightclub before the shooting. She said the two men were looking for cameras in the area.
Harris has testified he was a passenger in the back seat of the white Tahoe and he saw Clark shooting at the limousine. Although the prosecution and defense believe at least two guns were used in the fatal drive-by, Harris claims he was not shooting.
The day after she was with Harris and Clark, Garcia said she heard on the news that Hicks’ Tahoe had been used in the fatal shooting and she walked over to Clark’s home and told him to get the Tahoe out of her garage.
“I didn’t want it in there because it had been used in a homicide,” she said. “He said he would come get it when it got dark.”
The next morning, Garcia said, she saw Hicks’ white Tahoe on the news and that it had been spray-painted black and had been burned inside.
Felisa Cardona: 303-954-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com
