Ex-co-defendant could testify in Tucson beauty queen case

After striking a plea agreement, state prosecutors said they hope a Tucson man will help them convict a former Tucson beauty queen and suspended University of Arizona law student accused of kidnapping, robbery and assault.

But an attorney for Kumari Fulbright says Larry Bruce Hammond's testimony can absolve her in the alleged Dec. 9 assault on her former boyfriend.

Hammond, 40, pleaded guilty Monday in Pima County Superior Court to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a Class 3 felony that carries a prison sentence of two to 8.75 years.

In agreeing to testify, the Arizona Attorney General's Office is dropping charges of kidnapping, aggravated robbery, armed robbery and another aggravated assault charge against Hammond.

Hammond will be sentenced after he testifies against Fulbright; Robert Ergonis, 45; and David Wayne Radde, 44, said Andrea Esquer, press secretary for Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard.

A trial date has not been set, court records show.

According to documents filed by Fulbright's attorney, Stephen M. Weiss, Hammond's statements can clear Fulbright.

The victim, when left alone with Fulbright, managed to wrestle a gun away from her and escape, police said in December. But Hammond told police Dec. 9 that he didn't see Fulbright harm the victim, the records state. ``If somebody said you were there when she put a knife to his head or to his ear, you didn't see that happen?'' a detective asked Hammond, according to a transcript included in the records obtained by the Tucson Citizen. ``No, sir,'' Hammond said. He also denied seeing Fulbright bite the victim, as alleged.

Prosecutors alleged Fulbright used Ergonis, Radde and Hammond to restrain and threaten the victim because he allegedly pawned Fulbright's jewelry to pay a $16,000 drug debt, police and court records show.

For her part, Fulbright, 25, allegedly threatened the victim with a gun and held a large knife to his head, saying she'd ``ram it into his brain,'' the records show.

Fulbright ran in the Miss Arizona contest and was named Miss Pima County in 2005 and Miss Desert Sun in 2006.

She's currently under suspension by the UA pending the outcome of the case.