The defense's first witness to testify about the 2006 killing of Oxnard resident Fred Williams was the defendant, John Lewis.

The first question he was asked Friday was about his involvement in Williams' execution-style killing.

"Sir, did you kill Fred Williams?" Lewis' attorney, Steven Powell, asked him.

"No."

"Did you hire Bakari Pitts to kill Fred Williams?"

"No."

On the stand for more than two hours while Powell questioned him, Lewis initially appeared relaxed and calm, and at one point he laughed at one question.

Powell, searching for a specific slang word used on the streets, asked Lewis what he called people who have a lot of money.

"Rich," Lewis said and laughed.

Powell's questions to Lewis included asking him about his upbringing in Oxnard and his two convictions: one for killing his stepfather in 1992 and another for robbery.

Lewis said he did 2 1/2 years to three years in prison after the robbery.

He said his business, Speezy's Tattoo and Piercing Studio in Los Angeles, is a legitimate business. However, he admitted to selling small quantities of marijuana and committing other crimes such as dealing in stolen property, but he said he wasn't involved in pimping women.

Lewis said he didn't know why Pitts, who he said was a friend, had admitted killing Williams and accused Lewis of ordering the hit.

"I don't dwell deep into reasons. It was already done," he said.

Under cross-examination by prosecutor Cheryl Temple, Lewis seemed irritated and upset when pressed hard by Temple on such things as his truthfulness, his income and expenses, and whether he called the shots in the Oxnard-based Black Mafia gang and got others to commit crimes.

"You never solicited Bakari Pitts to do any robberies?" Temple asked.

No, Lewis said, adding that what Pitts described as a robbery was a "security detail" to guard some medical marijuana being transported from Riverside County to Humboldt County.

Lewis said the purchase of a rapid firing Mac-10 firearm with a silencer was done to protect large quantities of marijuana.

"It's not illegal to be selling large quantities of marijuana?" Temple asked.

No, he said, adding that he sold large quantities of medical marijuana to clinics.

Temple used police wire-tapped conversations to impeach Lewis' credibility during his testimony.

Temple grilled Lewis about shooting his stepfather three times in the back in 1992 as he ran out of the house and cursing at him while firing the weapon.

Lewis said he thought his stepfather killed his mother, who was missing. He said he didn't know she had committed suicide.

Lewis said he sometimes lies, mostly to women to manipulate them.

"Mr. Lewis, you are a liar, aren't you?" Temple asked.

"Not today," he replied.

Lewis is expected to continue his testimony Monday.