After a last-minute plea to the judge, murder defendant Sante Kimes was allowed to return to the stand Wednesday to speak at length in her own defense, briefly delaying closing arguments.

Kimes, 69, is charged, along with her son Kenneth Kimes, 29, in the 1998 killing of Granada Hills businessman David Kazdin.

Despite protests from her attorneys, Sante Kimes took the stand Monday, claiming she "loved that victim."

"He was our dearest friend," Kimes said of Kazdin. "God bless him wherever he is. I need his help. I wish he was here today."

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Kazdin, 63, was unwittingly caught up in Sante Kimes' alleged scheme to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars on a fraudulent bank loan. When he discovered that his identity was being used, Kazdin alerted authorities and refused to cooperate in the scam.

That's when, prosecutors say, Sante Kimes planned her friend's murder and sent her son, Kenneth, to kill him on March 13, 1998.

For two days on the stand, Kimes engaged in what court insiders have characterized as a "one-on-one battle" with Deputy District Attorney Eleanor Hunter, calling Hunter "D.A. Death."

Kimes denied her own involvement, not just in Kazdin's murder, but in the killing of two other individuals whose bodies have never been found. Defense attorneys Ray Newman and Charles Maple originally opted not to question their client, but on Wednesday, at Sante's urging, they put her back on the stand to allow her to verbally maintain her innocence in all three murders.

Sante and Kenneth Kimes were convicted in New York in 2000 for the murder of their millionaire landlady, Irene Silverman. They received prison sentences of more than 120 years and were eventually extradited to California to face charges in Kazdin's murder.

The mother-son duo was inseparable during the Silverman trial, but Kenneth unexpectedly changed his plea last November to guilty, and agreed to testify against his mother. He is set to receive a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The district attorney will not press for the death penalty against Sante, if she is convicted.

'A wonderful boy'

In his gripping testimony late last week, Kenneth Kimes admitted shooting Kazdin, almost point-blank, in the head with a .22-caliber handgun.

Kenneth Kimes testified against his mother again this week, admitting to taking part in the killing of two people whose bodies were never found.

He told jurors he disposed of Kazdin's body in a Dumpster near the Los Angeles airport, adhering to his mother's motto, "No body, no crime." He also stopped at a flower shop on the way home from the killing, to pick up a bouquet for his mother to "celebrate" the "significant completion" of her plan.

Prosecutors produced letters Sante Kimes wrote her son while they were incarcerated in New York, instructing him on developing his alibi, acting like "a sweet little beaten little puppy" in court, and escaping prison.

During her two days of testimony this week, Sante Kimes blamed prosecutor Hunter for her son's betrayal, calling him a "hero" and a "wonderful boy," whom she was trying to save.

"You broke him, but you are not going to break me," Kimes said, always giving her answers to the jury and refusing to look at Hunter.

She also denied the "no body, no crime" motto, claiming the family byword was actually "rainbows." Sante reportedly told jurors that the cheery reference was inspired during a beachside vacation, when she had asked her late husband what he wanted for his birthday; he answered that all he wished for was a "rainbow." Lo and behold, the defendant said, a rainbow appeared before them.

"It's all just a bunch of lies when she's up there," Steven Kazdin, the victim's son, told Courttv.com. "The jurors aren't even looking at her anymore. They're rolling their eyes ... I think she's insulted their intelligence."

The missing bodies

By taking the stand this week, Kimes opened herself up to intense questioning about the deaths of Irene Silverman and Syed Bilal Ahmed, a 55-year-old Bahrain native who vanished in 1996 after taking a meeting in Nassau with the Kimeses to discuss their offshore banking accounts.

Prosecutors brought Kenneth Kimes back on the stand Tuesday to rebut Sante's denial of her involvement in the three deaths. Kenneth admitted to taking part in the killing of Silverman and Ahmed, at his mother's request, and gave jurors a chilling account of the victims' final moments.

Kenneth said that in 1996, they slipped Rohypnol — the date-rape drug — in Ahmed's drink, and then drowned him in a bathtub in a house they were renting in the Bahamas. Ahmed reportedly struggled against the sedative's effects as the pair took turns holding him under the water.

Sante then ordered her son to take the banker's body out to the coast, by boat, weight it with an anchor and throw it overboard, Kenneth said. She refused to accompany her son in the boat. Although U.S. authorities have contacted Bahamian authorities about Kenneth's confession, Ahmed is still listed as a missing person in that country and no further investigation has yet been pursued.

Kenneth also spoke about his mother's plot to kill 82-year-old Irene Silverman to take over her $7 million townhouse in New York. In July 1998, Kenneth said, his mother used a stun gun on Silverman and then he strangled her, eventually dumping her body in a trash bin in a residential area of Hoboken, N.J. Her body was never found.

After Kenneth wrapped up his testimony Tuesday, Sante called out to him from her wheelchair at the defense table, "I'll fight for you 'til I die!"

Sante was also allowed to show jurors a series of photographs — birthday pictures of Kenneth and images from the family's early days — "to establish our wealth," she said, and to show that "there was no reason for us to do any of this."

On Tuesday, after prosecutors completed questioning and the jury had been excused, Sante begged the judge to be allowed to remain on the stand to address issues raised about the Amhed and Silverman murders, of which she had previously denied any knowledge.

Kimes, who is known for her rambling monologues, has been continually admonished by the judge for speaking out in court, badgering witnesses on the stand, faking illness in order to delay her trial, and attempting to have her attorneys fired in order to represent herself.

She reportedly told Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy-Powell that she had more to say and that her due process rights were being violated. Her request was initially denied, but by Wednesday morning, the judge had changed her decision allowing Sante to speak briefly. Again, the defendant maintained her innocence in all three killings.

Closing arguments are expected to finish Wednesday.

The Associated Press and Court TV wire services contributed to this report.