Talk show host Jenny Jones found the roles reversed when defense lawyers in a murder trial turned the microphone on her. Jones, usually smiling and gossipy on the show, became guarded and appeared nervous on the witness stand.
During a series of reluctant responses, she denied knowing whether one of her guests had been deceived about appearing on a show about gay crushes.The guest, Jonathan Schmitz, says he was driven to kill Scott Amedure, who told Schmitz on the show that he had a crush on him and described "whipped cream and champagne" fantasies.
Testimony was to resume today with Schmitz's mother.
Lawyers for Schmitz, 26, have not denied he shot Amedure, 32, three days after the March 1995 taping of the show, which never aired. But they contend talk show staffers misled Schmitz into thinking his secret admirer was a woman.
"This was ambush television wasn't it?" defense lawyer Fred Gibson asked.
"No," Jones said in a soft voice.
Schmitz's lawyers say their client's embarrassment, coupled with a history of mental and physical illnesses, pushed him over the edge and kept him from forming the intent necessary to commit first-degree murder.
Jones reluctantly testified that no one told her Schmitz said he wouldn't appear on her show if his secret admirer was a man. But she also said Schmitz didn't appear upset during the taping when his admirer was revealed to be Amedure.
Clips of the show, played in court Oct. 17, showed Schmitz laughing in embarrassment but with no apparent anger.
Gibson asked Jones: "Do you ever think that if you had not gone for that last little setup, that the tragedy that brought us here today would not have happened?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Jones replied.
Jones' testimony came after Schmitz's father told the jury about how excited his son was before the taping because he thought his admirer would be a woman - and how upset Schmitz was after the show.