A BOY'S DOUBLE HEARTBREAK; CAMERON'S MOTHER WAS KILLED BY A STREET ROBBER : THE MAN HE THOUGHT WAS HIS FATHER SAYS HE'S NOT.

Byline: Jesse Hiestand Staff Writer

At just 7, Cameron Smith already has suffered two heartbreaks: the death of his mother during a street robbery and then finding out that the man he called Dad has DNA evidence to prove he is not.

Police have not caught the man who shot Cameron's mother, 23-year-old Michele Dawn Smith, along a busy Canoga Park boulevard in midafternoon Nov. 27, 1995.

And the man his mother identified as Cameron's father has for years shunned the boy and is embroiled in a legal battle to nullify his legal parental responsibility.

``First he thought he had a father, and now he doesn't,'' said the boy's guardian, his grandfather, Barry Smith of Chatsworth. ``He lost his mother, so now he doesn't have either one.

``The kids at school talk about their mother and father, and he doesn't have either one. How do you explain that to him?'' Smith said.

Cameron said he doesn't like to let a lot of other kids know about his mom.

``I wish my mom was still alive,'' said the youngster, who fills his time with Cub Scouts, school and T-ball.

Los Angeles police said the trail to Michele Smith's killer has grown cold since the Pierce College honors student was shot to death for refusing to hand over her purse, just a block from her apartment on Saticoy Street in Canoga Park. The gunman shot her once in the chest and walked away.

The shooting was witnessed by several people who helped police put together a composite sketch of the killer, but the leads are evaporating.

``We'll keep working on it until we solve the case one way or another,'' vowed Los Angeles police homicide Detective Rick Swanston of the West Valley Division. He asked that anyone with information call detectives at [phone].

The suspect is described as Latino, 25 to 30 years old, 5 feet 7 inches to 5 feet 9 inches and 180 to 185 pounds. He had curly, shoulder-length black hair and a thick, neatly trimmed mustache when the killing occurred, authorities said.

Searching for father

For Cameron, the loss of his mother was compounded by having a father who exists only on paper - a 1994 judgment ordering Chad Winter of Simi Valley to assume parental responsibility.

``Cameron would not know me from a stranger on the street if he saw me,'' said Winter, 28, who has had almost no contact with the boy. ``I haven't functioned as a father - and I have DNA evidence that proves I'm not the father.''

Indeed, Winter and Cameron, with his grandfather's permission, took a DNA test at Long Beach Genetics.

``Chad Allen Winter is not the father of Cameron Smith,'' Dr. Jeffrey W. Morris concluded in June 1998, based on a comparison of three sections of the pair's DNA.

Armed with that finding, Winter and an attorney went back to Los Angeles Superior Court earlier this year to overturn the judgment naming him as the boy's father.

It was to no avail.

Superior Court Commissioner Roberta Lee upheld the judgment, largely on technical grounds. Winter missed his chance to dispute paternity in the six months he was allowed to do so after it was filed on Aug. 15, 1994, according to court records.

Winter appealed the judgment before a judge in June and again lost.

Reforms sought

Earlier this year, state lawmakers considered but rejected an amendment to a bill that would have changed laws to make it easier for people like Winter to challenge paternity.

``If someone is not the father they should challenge that as soon as possible,'' said attorney Gloria Allred. ``The father should be entitled to due process rights, but on the other hand they have to timely assert those rights. If they don't, or they waive those rights, then certain obligations may be imposed on them.''

Winter said he regrets missing his window of opportunity, but insists he did so because he was living in Tucson, Ariz., at the time and was not served with a notice of the judgment hearing. Prosecutors dispute that claim and say Winter was properly notified.

Winter did not help his cause by waiting five years to dispute paternity or allowing his wages to be garnished and making request for custody and visitation, according to court records filed by prosecutors.

Winter said he requested custody on the bad advice of an attorney but quickly withdrew the petition.

Either way, Michele Smith's handwritten declaration naming Winter as the father, filed eight months after Cameron's birth, became legal.

Winter has now exhausted his legal options, but he remains adamant that it is unfair for him to pay child support when he can prove he's not the father.

To that end, he stopped paying child support in May out of protest and has since been bouncing from job to job in an effort to duck investigators.

``I made a mistake by not going to court, and I'll admit that. But I corrected my mistake, and now it's time for them to correct their mistake,'' Winter said of prosecutors.

No mistake was made, said Wayne Doss, director of the Bureau of Family Support Operation for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

``It seems to fly in the face of common sense, but it is based on the court's desire to create stability in the judgments it issues,'' Doss said. A judgment in a paternity case is no different from one in any other civil or criminal matter, he said. Once it is established it cannot be overturned unless there is evidence that the court did not have jurisdiction or that the judgment was obtained through fraud, he said.

That presents a bind for people like Winter who cannot introduce new evidence like DNA test results until the old judgment is overturned.

``And you can't use the blood test in and of itself to set aside the judgment,'' Doss said. ``So the issue is not whether we doubt the test or its accuracy but whether it is relevant in court.''

Doss said he would support new laws to give people more than six months to challenge a default judgment, but he does not expect the legislature will ever do away with the time limit completely, as Winter advocates.

CAPTION(S):

4 Photos

Photo: (1--Color) Cameron Smith, 7, lost his mother in 1995 when she was shot during a street robbery in Canoga Park.

(2) Cameron Smith, who lost his mother, Michele Dawn Smith, in a robbery, plays with his Gameboy.

Eric Grigorian/Staff Photographer

(3--4--Color) Michele Dawn Smith, 23, left, was an honors student at Pierce College. Chad Winter, above, has proof he is not the father of his ex-girlfriend's child.