SANTA MARIA, Calif. — Michael Jackson's defense rested Wednesday after actor Chris Tucker testified that he warned Jackson to be wary of the woman who now claims the King of Pop molested her son.

"I told him to watch out for [the mother], because I felt suspicious about her," Tucker told jurors.

It was February 2003, and the comedian was at a luxury resort in Miami with Jackson, the 13-year-old accuser and the boy's family. Tucker said the singer listened to him, but their conversation was brief and they did not discuss it again.

Tucker testified that he thought something was "mentally wrong" with the mother and that her sons were "cunning." But he appeared evasive during cross-examination, unable to recall inviting the family to his brother's wedding and continually answering "I don't know" or "I don't remember" to simple questions.

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Prosecutors allege that Jackson committed lewd acts on the boy, gave him alcohol and conspired to falsely imprison him and his family at Neverland in February and March 2003, after the child was seen snuggling with Jackson in the tell-all TV documentary, "Living with Michael Jackson."

Jackson did not take the stand in his defense.

Tucker, the 50th and final witness in the 15-day defense case, was one of several witnesses called to weaken the family's credibility.

The defense has accused the mother of fraud, perjury and celebrity grifting. Her two sons have been described as rambunctious, destructive and even dangerous by defense witnesses, some of whom were current or former Neverland employees.

Tucker, who met the boy about five years ago at a fundraiser, told jurors initially he was touched by the teen's battle with stage-four cancer.

But as he got to know the family over the years, he said, their actions and effusive praise gave him pause.

"They did a lot of things that I didn't see, that my people were telling me to watch out," Tucker said. His people included his assistants on the set of "Rush Hour 2" in Las Vegas, where he had invited the family to visit him.

Tucker said he paid for their trip, but felt like he was being taken advantage of after they ended up staying for a week or longer, asked to move to his hotel and be put up in the same kind of room he had, and became so disruptive on the set that director Brett Ratner finally told the actor, "It was time for them to leave, they got to go," Tucker said.

"But I was like being naive, you know, 'This kid — let him have some fun.' But everybody was saying the same thing, so it was getting that we couldn't hardly film," Tucker testified.

A woman 'possessed'

Tucker told jurors that he gave the family about $1,500, offered to give them his girlfriend's truck, and took them on shopping trips and vacations. After a Feb. 4, 2003, call from the boy — just as the damaging Jackson documentary was set to air — his suspicions grew.

"The media was following them around, and they wanted to go out of town to find Michael," Tucker said. "They found out he was in Miami and they wanted to go to Miami."

Tucker chartered a plane to take the family with him to Miami to see Jackson and to help them escape the media heat.

Prosecutors contend the trip to Miami was Jackson's idea, not the family's.

The mother previously testified that Jackson had called her Feb. 4 to warn her that her family's life was in danger because of the documentary, and that her son needed to join them in Miami to take part in a press conference. The conference never took place.

Tucker denied any knowledge of a press conference or any plans by Jackson's aides to bring the family to Miami.

He said that, when they showed up at his house on the day of the trip, he was extremely uncomfortable with the mother's reaction when he gave her the keys to his girlfriend's Toyota truck.

"She started frantically crying — not crying like something normal, but it was like something was wrong with her," Tucker said, adding that the mother repeatedly called him a brother to her children and Jackson the father. "Something in my spirit just didn't feel right about it, and I felt — I'm going too far, because she was — something mentally wasn't right."

District Attorney Thomas Sneddon asked Tucker whether it was simply the reaction of a woman who had little means and was "grateful" for the gift.

"She didn't say that, she was crying frantically ... shaking like she was possessed," Tucker said.

He also told jurors that he believed the accuser was "smart and cunning" for a teenage boy.

"He would always say stuff like, 'Chris, let me have this, let me have this. C'mon, I'm not feeling good,'" Tucker said. "But I knew he had family problems so I always overlooked it."

He also said he felt the accuser's teenage brother had sticky fingers: "I would almost have to check his pockets before he'd leave my house."

Prosecutors contend that the boy's father — whom he is now estranged from — and not the mother pushed the children to ask for money from celebrities.

Tucker denied during cross-examination that he told defense investigators that he thought the father was behind an incident in which the boy asked him point-blank for money.

"[The boy] was so cunning and so smart, if [he] doesn't want to do something, he's not going to do it," Tucker said, ultimately conceding that perhaps it was "a tag team" effort by the boy and his dad.

'Nothing to say'

The "Rush Hour" star's insights into how the family interacted with celebrities may have bolstered the defense's case, but his dodging of prosecution questions may have hurt his credibility with jurors.

Tucker insisted, for instance, that he made himself available for prosecution interviews, and that his attorney even set up an appointment, but that the investigators weren't interested in talking to him.

The prosecution immediately began its rebuttal case after the defense rested and, of the four witnesses called Tuesday, one appeared to impeach part of Tucker's testimony.

Detective Vic Alvarez told jurors that Tucker's attorney nixed interviews, reporting to him that the actor had "nothing to say." Three times, Alvarez said, he showed up at Tucker's door and left his business card and a note to call, but never received a response.

Rebuttal witness Jesus Salas, former ranch manager at Neverland, was also called to counter the testimony of witnesses who said they saw the boys stealing money and crystal beads from the ranch manager's office drawers.

Salas said he was never robbed of cash and that no one ever reported to him acts of theft, graffiti or violence by the boys during their stay at Neverland, as some defense witnesses have alleged.

He also told jurors that he believed the boys slept in Jackson's bedroom about 90 percent of the time and that he had seen the singer intoxicated about four times a week. At least three times, Salas said, he felt Jackson was so drunk that he was a danger to his own children.

Prosecution rebuttal may continue into Friday and the defense has indicated it may put on a surrebuttal.