'She had a smile on her face': Detective wraps up prosecution case in Winona Ryder trial

<br>BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) _ The prosecution rested its case against actress Winona Ryder after calling a half-dozen witnesses who said she shoplifted more than $5,500 worth of merchandise from Saks

Friday, November 1st 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) _ The prosecution rested its case against actress Winona Ryder after calling a half-dozen witnesses who said she shoplifted more than $5,500 worth of merchandise from Saks Fifth Avenue.

Detective Mark Parker, the prosecution's final witness, described Ryder as ``very calm'' on the night of her arrest after being detained by guards at the Beverly Hills store.

``She had a smile on her face,'' Parker told the Superior Court jury Thursday.

The attorney for the film actress was expected to mount her defense Friday.

Ryder, 31, is charged with felony grand theft, burglary and vandalism for allegedly stealing expensive clothes and accessories on Dec. 12, 2001. She faces up to three years in prison, if convicted.

Store security personnel have testified the actress remarked after being detained that she thought an assistant had paid for the merchandise, but also that she had shoplifted as preparation for a movie role. The detective offered a similar account.

``She was nervous about what was going to happen,'' Parker said. ``At one point she was explaining that she was getting in character for a role as a kleptomaniac. She wanted to see what it was like to shoplift.''

Also testifying was Ernest Amaya, a Saks asset protection agent who said he was called to the front door to be there when Ryder left so that she could be detained.

``I said, 'Excuse me, I work in asset protection and need to talk to you about merchandise unpaid for.' She said, 'I thought my assistant paid for it. I am very sorry,''' Amaya said.

No assistant has been seen with Ryder in store security videotapes of the actress moving through the store heavily laden with merchandise.

Amaya said he asked Ryder about other items and she volunteered that she had two small beaded purses around her neck that were concealed by her coat.

Defense attorney Mark Geragos had earlier aggressively cross-examined former store security guard Colleen Rainey, who had testified she peered through slats of a fitting room door and saw Ryder use scissors to cut security tags off merchandise.

Geragos accused her of profiting from the case and making up stories.

Geragos was displaying documents detailing the finances of Rainey and her husband after Ryder's arrest when Judge Elden Fox interrupted.

``Are you going to tie this into something relevant, or just go into her family background?'' the judge asked.

Geragos insisted he would show relevance, but he never succeeded in proving that the couple somehow benefited from her involvement in the Ryder case.

At one point, Geragos said he wanted Rainey to carefully study the handwriting on financial documents because ``I don't want you to commit any further act of perjury.''

The prosecutor objected and the judge warned Geragos he could be held in contempt.