Gun's owner testifies at Cloud trial

The man who gave a gun to a hitman hired to kill a Bard farmer in 1997 testified Wednesday in the capital murder trial of Lois  Kay Cloud, who is also accused in the slaying.

Jon Howerton, who is the brother of the hitman's wife, said he gave the hitman, Vincent Lee Accardo, a .357-caliber Magnum handgun a few months before the murder occurred.

"He said he needed it for protection from his brother," Howerton said. "And I believed him at the time."

Cloud is facing charges of first-degree murder, solicitation to commit first-degree murder and hindering prosecution. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

She is accused of hiring Accardo to kill her husband, Bard farmer Kenneth Cloud, who was 55 when he was shot to death in the parking lot of Burgers and Beer, 321 W. 20th St., on Dec. 9, 1997.

Accardo was sentenced by a jury in June 2008 to die by lethal injection after being found guilty of first-degree murder. He was also given a statutory life sentence on a conspiracy charge associated with the slaying.

After a plea agreement, Lisa Baker, Howerton's sister, was sentenced in March 2004 in Yuma County Superior Court for hindering prosecution.

Howerton, during his testimony Wednesday, stated that his sister and Accardo came to visit him in Phoenix sometime during the latter part of 1997 and that they were traveling in a maroon Chevy Lumina, which was later described as seen leaving the scene of the murder.

Before they left, Howerton said, Accardo asked him for $300 and to borrow his brand-new Chevrolet pickup truck to get to Yuma.

Howerton, who was giving his testimony under immunity from insurance fraud and hindering prosecution in the murder case, said Accardo told him that he would get rid of the pickup for him so he wouldn't have to pay for it anymore.

"It was Vince's idea," Howerton said. "He was to get rid of it, burn it in the desert somewhere."

The next day, Howerton said, he reported his pickup had been stolen to the Phoenix Police Department and filed a claim with his insurance company.

Howerton also stated that when his sister and Accardo went to Yuma, they left the maroon Chevy Lumina  parked at a Denny's restaurant on Black Canyon Freeway in Phoenix.

Prosecutor Levi Gunderson asked Howerton when he gave the money and gun to Accardo.

"(The gun) was loaded, completely loaded and I left it in the pickup," Howerton said. "I left the money in the ashtray."

Howerton said he went to Yuma about three weeks later to get back his gun, the money he had loaned them and a new pickup that Accardo had promised him as part of the insurance scam they committed with the red Chevy.

"I didn't get my money, the truck or my gun," Howerton said.

The only witness called to the stand Wednesday, Howerton said Accardo and his sister returned to Phoenix at some point after that and they didn't have his red pickup anymore. He said they left Phoenix driving the maroon Chevy Lumina again.

During the questioning, Gunderson focused on statements that Howerton made to police that were untrue at the time and different to the testimony he was giving on the stand Wednesday.

Among some of the statements Gunderson asked Howerton about were his telling police that his sister was by herself when she came to visit him, that she was driving a blue car and not mentioning he had given Accardo a handgun.

Gunderson specifically asked Howerton if he was being completely truthful with Yuma police when  they were asking him for information about his sister.

"Most definitely not," Howerton answered.

Yuma police found Howerton's Chevy pickup at a local market in early 1998, which led police to interview him in Phoenix in February of that year.