ADAIR MURDER TRIAL BEGINS TODAY; JUDGE TO RULE ON ADMITTING EVIDENCE THAT MAY SPARE DEFENDANT.

Byline: Phillip W. Browne and Jesse Hiestand Daily News Staff Writers

Before Jeanie Adair, accused of killing her husband, goes on trial today, a judge is expected to decide whether to admit evidence her attorney says implicates someone else.

The evidence is key to the defense theory that Adair was the victim of a plot, borne out of a love triangle involving her and a married couple. Robert Adair was beaten to death with a baseball bat in 1996.

``My client did not commit this crime, and this evidence points more to someone else being involved than does the evidence against Jeanie,'' defense attorney Richard Plotin said.

Prosecutor Marsh Goldstein said he remains ``more than confident'' Jeanie Adair is guilty. ``She is the killer. That's it,'' Goldstein said before the hearing.

Adair was arrested two years after she told police that a home-invasion robber had beaten her and killed her husband.

The 38-year-old mother of two could face life in prison without the possibility of parole because she's also charged with lying in wait and murder for financial gain.

In a recent jailhouse interview with the Daily News, Adair asserted her innocence.

Plotin said he will prove Adair is a victim of disgraceful police work that ignored evidence pointing to other killers - possibly orchestrated by Mindy Shapiro, ex-wife of Adair's lover, Dr. Michael R. Shapiro of Tarzana.

Mindy Shapiro's attorney, Steven Knowles, could not be reached for comment but has said she was not involved in the crime.

Prosecutors say Adair killed her husband to collect more than $300,000 in life insurance and gain control of a sizable workers' compensation claim.

On Thursday, Joyce Russell of Calabasas testified she overheard a cell phone call Mindy Shapiro made that ``had something to do'' with Robert Adair.

Russell, in testimony before San Fernando Superior Court Judge L. Jeffrey Wiatt, said she never met the Adairs but knew Mindy Shapiro's husband was having an affair with Jeanie Adair.

In court Thursday, she could provide no further details of the conversation when questioned by both her attorney and the prosecutor.

However, court documents assert that Russell will testify she heard Mindy Shapiro telling a man in a cellular telephone call that Robert Adair was ``dead or beat up real bad.''

The timing of that conversation, verified by cellular phone records, occurred on the day of the murder, two hours before there was any public knowledge of the case, Plotin said.

Other evidence will show Mindy Shapiro threatened in person and in a series of letters to kill Jeanie Adair, Plotin said.

Goldstein has argued that several critical ``unanswerable questions'' in Jeanie Adair's story point to her guilt. The alleged robbers left behind cash and valuables, including Robert Adair's wallet and expensive watch, and the robbers also allegedly spent several hours inside the condominium, which is uncommon in home-invasion robberies.

But the No. 1 fact that demolishes the defense theory, Goldstein contends, is that the alleged robbers left Jeanie Adair alive - the only person who could identify them.

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