Jailed Lou Pearlman snitches on suspected cop killer
Jim Leusner
OrlandoSentinel.com
Sentinel exclusive
Sentinel Staff Writer
July 30, 2008
orlandosentinel.com
While federal investigators were building the $300 million fraud case against Lou Pearlman, he was conducting an investigation of his own.
Held in the Orange County Jail with a man accused of killing a cop, the flamboyant boy-band founder began listening, taking notes and drawing diagrams that he would later turn over to investigators.
Over three weeks, Pearlman said, he listened as nearby inmate Davin Smith recounted the Oct. 7 slaying of off-duty Orlando police Officer Alfred Gordon, who was gunned down in the parking lot of a Pine Hills bank.
"What are you charged with?" Pearlman said he overheard another inmate ask Smith.
"We killed a cop," he said Smith replied.
Pearlman's jailhouse disclosures were released to the Orlando Sentinel on Tuesday by Orange-Osceola County prosecutors. Smith's first-degree murder trial is set for November. A co-defendant, Hugo Terry, 18, is slated for trial next month. Both have pleaded not guilty.
In the transcript of a 28-minute interview with Orange County sheriff's detectives Oct. 30, Pearlman talked repeatedly about hearing Smith boast of the crime committed with an associate two years younger, whom he called "homeboy."
Included in the documents were copies of Pearlman's handwritten notes and diagrams he drew of the pod where he and Smith, 19, were housed at the jail.
Pearlman said that in early October 2007, he heard Smith talk to another inmate, Jay Fine, about getting a lawyer. Fine then persuaded Smith to tell him about his case.
At one point, Smith said he considered himself a celebrity like former professional athlete O.J. Simpson and needed a celebrity lawyer, Pearlman said.
Although most discussions were between Smith and Fine, Pearlman said Smith spoke with him a few times after Smith left the shower. Pearlman, founder of the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync bands, said the suspect knew him from his television talent show, Making the Band.
According to Pearlman, Smith said that on the morning Gordon was shot, he and an associate robbed another man of an ATM card but couldn't get money out of the machine. Frustrated, they saw Gordon sitting in the bank parking lot and decided to rob him. Smith flashed his gun while Gordon was going for his weapon, Pearlman said.
"So Smith shot him," Pearlman said. "He said it happened . . . so fast, Smith said his homeboy and he didn't know that he was a cop. They immediately ran and they didn't, uh, rob the guy."
Smith later said he was concerned that his "skin" would be found on the murder weapon. He also said he knew who the Crimeline tipster was who led police to the 9 mm pistol used in the crime -- and bragged that he owned two rifles and a pistol stolen in Miami, Pearlman said.
Pearlman, 54, said he took notes at the instructions of his lawyers, Don West and Fletcher Peacock.
Pearlman "provided a statement to law enforcement that was useful in the Sheriff's Office investigation of our case," said state prosecutor Robin Wilkinson. Pearlman has been listed as a potential witness in the trial.
Earlier this year, Pearlman pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges and agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors and agents. He was sentenced in June to 25 years in federal prison and last week was moved to the medium-security U.S. penitentiary in Atlanta.
Peacock said when he seeks a federal sentence reduction for Pearlman in the future, he will tell the judge about Pearlman's "very valuable and relevant" help in the Gordon murder investigation.
Sarah Lundy of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Jim Leusner can be reached at 407-420-5411 or jleusner@orlandosentinel.com.
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