LAS VEGAS — Terry Hall watched television coverage of the Margaret Rudin murder trial in disgust last week as the reputation of her son, a key prosecution witness, was shredded during a withering cross-examination.

"Geez, they really tore him up," she recalled telling her ex-husband after her eldest son, handyman Augustine Lovato, limped off the stand.

Monday morning, it was her turn.

The slot machine attendant, still steaming about defense lawyer Tom Pitaro's shredding of her son's credibility, endured a grilling of her own when she took the stand to bolster his account of suspicious behavior by Rudin, a 57-year-old socialite accused of killing her millionaire husband.

Pitaro, who quipped "Lock and load!" as Hall was called to the stand, accused her of bad parenting and compulsive gambling and repeatedly suggested she and her son were lying about Rudin to get reward money.

"No, that's not true!" Hall shouted at Pitaro several times. She stuck by her account, telling jurors that she reported Rudin to police because she was worried her son might be framed for the murder. But Pitaro clearly rattled her. She left the stand with a quivering lip and burst into tears as soon as she was outside the courtroom.

Hall testified for the prosecution as the trial, now in its fourth week, resumed after a long weekend recess designed to give Rudin's defense team, which has struggled to prepare for the state's witnesses, more time. Rudin faces life in prison for the murder of her husband, Ron, a real estate developer worth $11 million. Prosecutors allege Margaret Rudin, angry about her husband's philandering and eager to inherit his money, shot her husband as he slept in their bed Dec. 18, 1994. His charred remains were found more than a month later near Lake Mohave.

Lovato, who worked briefly as a handyman for the defendant, testified March 20 that shortly after Rudin disappeared, Margaret Rudin asked him to remove part of a bedroom carpet. He said he noticed a blood-like substance with a strange smell on the rug. He also told jurors that he saw "reddish-brown" splatter on a portrait above the bed and helped Rudin dispose of the bed itself.

When court resumed Monday after a three-day recess, Hall said her son initially only told her that he "had worked for a lady and her husband was missing." Later, however, he told her specifics about the work he had done.

"I began to feel uncomfortable about him working there," she said.

Hall said she was especially concerned because Lovato had a record, and might be used as a patsy.

"His fingerprints were all over that house. If she was involved in it, I didn't want him to be a suspect in any way," she said.

She said she finally decided to call the police when she found a package in her son's car that Rudin had asked him to mail. The package, addressed to Margaret Rudin's mother, was later opened by investigators and contained mementos and letters from her. Her son, she said, was opposed to her tipping off police, calling her a "Terry Mason" and overprotective mother.

Hall said she hadn't seen any media reports on Ron Rudin's disappearance before calling the police and knew nothing of a $25,000 reward offered by his trust.

When Pitaro rose for cross-examination, Hall could barely disguise her anger at him. Admitting that she had watched extensive coverage of her son's stint on the stand, she said, "It upset me, especially the part with you in it."

She acknowledged that after Lovato's testimony, she called her ex-husband, Eric Hall, to ask if he had also been subpoenaed in the case. Pitaro suggested the "out of the blue" call after two years of little communication was her attempt to shore up his testimony and be certain it meshed with hers if he later testified. She denied that.

She also denied that she had a slot machine addiction and that it ruined her marriage. Pitaro also suggested that her son had a behavioral problem and had been involved in gangs. Hall denied those charges as well.

Pitaro confronted Hall with her son's grand jury testimony in which he said that she contacted a detective friend of hers and learned about the case before calling investigators. She said he must have been mistaken and knew no officers. Pitaro also highlighted Lovato's testimony before a civil court in which he said "she had read the papers and knew everything." Hall maintained that she had read nothing about the case before calling investigators and said her son may have been talking about the label of the package, not news accounts.

Also testifying Monday was Homicide Detective Phil Ramos, the case agent in the Rudin investigation. He said that when he notified Rudin that her husband was dead, she exclaimed, "Oh my goodness" and rubbed her eye. She never cried, nor showed any emotion, however, he said.

Det. Ramos, pointing out spots where blood was found on Rudin's portrait

Ramos explained to jurors how the investigation unfolded, detailing the execution of search warrants and the interviewing of witnesses. He described recovering the splattered "glamour shot" of Margaret Rudin, the portrait that had hung above the Rudin's bed, from a frame shop. As he talked, the large gold-framed photograph of Rudin, perfectly coifed and made-up posing in gold jewelry and a black v-neck jacket before a lavender background, was displayed on monitors throughout the court. Rudin regarded her image briefly before turning back to writing notes.

On cross-examination, which is to continue Tuesday, Ramos acknowledged police were told by three different people that they had seen Rudin being forcibly removed from the Oasis Hotel, a shady spot frequented by prostitutes, on the day he disappeared.