LAS VEGAS —The lead investigator in the shooting of millionaire real estate developer Ron Rudin spent a second day on the witness stand Tuesday defending himself against charges of spotty, biased police work.

Las Vegas Metro Detective Phil Ramos, a 28-year veteran who built the murder case against Rudin's wife, Margaret, fought off nearly five hours of defense accusations that investigators unfairly focused on the 57-year-old socialite when solid leads pointed to others.

"We had to keep our our minds' open," Ramos said. He added, "I thought we were being pretty damn thorough."

He also charged that two others — Margaret Rudin's companion, Yehuda Sharon, and her nephew, Scott Stavro — helped her carry out the killing for which she faces a life sentence.

"I know there's no way Margaret would've been able to do this by herself," he testified. "We know Mr. Rudin was a substantial man and the way his body was disposed of — I mean, I couldn't do it by myself."

Fishermen discovered Rudin's remains near Lake Mohave a little over a month after his employees had reported him missing in late 1994. Rudin, who was worth $11 million, had been shot in the head and his body then decapitated and set afire.

Under suspicion

Police suspected his fifth wife, Margaret, had shot him for money, and gave Sharon, her rumored lover, immunity from prosecution to advance their case. But Sharon provided no information of value. He denied knowing anything about the murder and claimed he was only Rudin's financial advisor, not her paramour.

Stavro, the son of Rudin's sister Barbara, moved into a guest house on the couple's estate soon after Ron Rudin's disappearance. Prosecutors allege Rudin was shot as he slept in his bed and believe the attack left the bedroom carpet saturated with blood. A handyman testified he removed that stained, foul-smelling rug, and Stavro's other aunt, Dona Cantrell-Robinson, told the grand jury that she saw a similar carpet rolled up on top of her nephew's car.

In front of a 1995 grand jury, prosecutors repeatedly suggested Stavro knew how his uncle had died before police informed his aunt. He denied those charges, but Detective Ramos testified Tuesday that conversations with Stavro following the discovery of the body raised "a big red flag" about Rudin's involvement.

He was prohibited from discussing the substance of the conversations, but said it was just another piece of the investigation pointing straight at Rudin.

For example, Ramos said, Rudin behaved like someone who was guilty. After her husband vanished, Ramos said, "she didn't ask a single question about what happened. Nothing." When informed he had been murdered and his charred remains found, Ramos said, she showed no emotion, the first time in his career he had seen such a reaction.

Rudin's defense lawyer, Tom Pitaro, tried to deflate that argument by citing the brave front Jacqueline Kennedy put up in the face of her husband's death.

"You believe a person cannot react stoically?" Pitaro asked.

"I've never seen that," the detective replied.

Questioning the police work

Most of Pitaro's cross-examination concerned other leads in Rudin's disappearance. Three employees of the Oasis Motel, a down-scale hotel on the Strip that rents rooms by the hour, told Ramos they had seen a man they believed was Rudin being forcibly removed from a room by people identified as law enforcement agents.

Pitaro accused Ramos of shrugging off this information to pursue Margaret Rudin, but the detective said he and his partner spent four days interviewing witnesses at the motel and trying to track down the authorities who had removed the man.

"I cannot think of one agency we didn't check with to see if they had an operation there," he recalled. Ultimately, they concluded the motel "information was not accurate and that it wasn't Ron at the Oasis."

Pitaro pointed to other potential suspects, including the trustees of Rudin's estate who stood to gain from his death, and his business associates, some of whom had helped in shady real estate dealings.

"Don't you think how much money someone is going to profit from another is something into which you might want to inquire," Pitaro asked.

"Maybe," the detective replied, "but not in this case."

He said Rudin's employees and associates, in stark contrast to his wife, were "very open" with investigators and "were the ones coming forward and helping us with the investigation." They also cried when discussing Rudin's fate, he pointedly noted.

The detective said he never even interviewed Margaret in the first three weeks of the investigation and did not consider a suspect because he was busy tracking down the wide-ranging tips called into police, many of them the very leads raised by Pitaro. But the "bits and pieces" investigators gleaned incriminated Margaret Rudin, he said.

Pitaro pressed on, meticulously reviewing the detective's investigation step-by-step. The jurors seemed restless, yawning, picking at their cuticles and staring around the courtroom.

More police witnesses are expected Wednesday.