BY MEG LAUGHLIN
mlaughlin@herald.com

An evidentiary hearing in a Fort Pierce courtroom ended in high drama Monday when a federal judge accused a prosecutor of misleading a jury and suggested that a poor defense allowed this and other travesties to occur.

As a result, a man was convicted of a sensational 35-year-old murder and sent to Florida's Death Row 17 years ago. Now, his life depends on what federal Judge Norman Roettger decides about the evidence.

At the end of the six-hour evidentiary hearing, then-Highlands County prosecutor Hardy Pickard took the stand to defend his words to the jury that in 1984 convicted Billy Kelley, a Boston crook, of murder.

In persuading jurors that Kelley had killed citrus farmer Charles Von Maxcy in his Sebring home in 1966, Pickard had relied on a sole witness, John Sweet.

Pickard told the jury that Sweet had nothing to gain by his testimony. But Sweet, who had hired two hit men to kill his friend Maxcy, got immunity for a slew of crimes in Massachusetts in exchange for fingering Kelley as one of the hit men.

Sweet himself had been convicted of the murder in 1967 and sentenced to life, but got out a year later when Irene Maxcy, his lover and the widow of the dead man, was convicted of perjury for lying at Sweet's trial.

On Monday, it was Pickard's words to the jury about no immunity deal for Sweet that the judge zeroed in on.

Roettger to Pickard: ``What is important here is that Sweet wouldn't have agreed to testify against Kelley in Florida without immunity in Massachusetts. It looks as if the jury got a confusing or inaccurate summary from you.''

Pickard: ``I will admit it was somewhat inartful.''

``Was it artful or inartful?'' Roettger asked, hinting that Pickard may have intentionally misled the jury to get a conviction.

``It was never my attention to lie. But maybe the way the words came out is not how they should have come out,'' Pickard said quietly.

The admission fell on the courtroom like an atomic bomb. Marivon Adams, the daughter of the murder victim, who was sitting in the gallery, let out a loud sigh and whispered the word ``finally.''

Now 40, she was 5 years old when her father was murdered, and John Sweet moved into her father's bed next to her mother, Irene. She was 7 when her mother went to prison for perjury and 23 when Kelley was convicted of the murder.

She went to his trial thinking he was guilty, and walked away thinking he was innocent. Ever since then, she has worried that Kelley would be executed for a murder she does not think he committed.

After confronting Pickard about misleading the jury, Roettger then raised the question that perhaps Kelley was the wrong man.

Earlier in the day, Charles Busias, a restaurant cook in Fort Pierce, had testified that his now-deceased gangster father, Steve Busias, who was friends with John Sweet, had gone from their home in Boston to Florida for a secret reason in 1966, and had returned with bundles of $5,000. His father, Charles said, bought a Buick Electra and a bar with the money. The son remembered a pistol being in the house that matched the pistol used in the Maxcy murder.

``My father told me to throw it away,'' he said.

At the time Busias was dating a former girlfriend of Kelley's. He was six feet tall with curly black hair and a raspy voice.

Roettger zeroed in at the end of the day on the affidavit of a Daytona Beach hotel clerk who took a registration form in 1966, the day before Maxcy was murdered, from a man who signed his name as ``Billy Kelley.'' The registration form was presented as evidence at the 1984 trial.

The clerk described the man signing it as ``six feet or six feet one, about 40 with curly black hair'' -- an accurate description of Steve Busias.

At the time, Kelley was 23, six-five, and had light blond straight hair. This bothered Roettger.

``This is an area that troubles me,'' he told Kelley's lawyer, James Lohman, and Carol Ditmar, prosecutor for the Florida attorney general. ``That description is a most striking error. . . . I think this Daytona Beach matter is really very critical. . . . The witness was not asked to ID Kelley in court.''

Lohman nodded in agreement. Right before Roettger adjourned the hearing for the day, the judge said he would have to have written arguments to be followed by oral arguments -- a process that may take months. Then Lohman asked Kelley who was listening on a speaker phone from Death Row, if he had any questions. He said no.

Lohman then introduced Marivon Adams to the judge as the daughter of Von Maxcy. ``I know this has been difficult for you -- 35 years. It has been a long and protracted matter,'' he said.

Adams nodded in agreement.