COURT ORDERS NEW HEARING IN YOUNG MOTHER'S SLAYING.

Byline: Bhavna Mistry Daily News Staff Writer

The state Supreme Court has ordered a hearing into whether a Littlerock man facing execution in the beating death of a young mother was properly represented by his defense attorney, officials said.

Armenia Cudjo, 38, claims his attorney should have been looking at other scenarios in the March 1986 slaying of neighbor Amelia E. Prokuda, who prosecutors said was sexually assaulted before she was beaten with a claw hammer in her home.

Prokuda's 5-year-old son, who was home at the time, testified in court during the 1988 trial that a man forced his way into their home and put a knife to his mother's throat, demanded money and forced his way into the bedroom.

Prosecutors at that time said the boy was then ordered into the kitchen while the woman was tied, sexually assaulted and killed. Cudjo was never tried for any sexual crime.

Following his trial, Cudjo filed several claims challenging various aspects of the case, although the Supreme Court said the only issue that deserved a hearing was whether the victim's husband might have been a suspect, Deputy Attorney General Sharlene Honnaka said.

During the trial, Palmdale defense attorney William Allen Clark asserted that Cudjo's brother, Gregory Cudjo, was the murderer.

But now the defense is focusing on the victim's husband.

``It's a painful thing for the family to go through,'' Honnaka said. ``He (the father) has a perfect alibi.''

The father testified in court that he was at work driving a truck for a Commerce dairy, records show. Detectives who worked on the case would not disclose where the family is living now.

Clark said he ably represented his client, and had checked out the husband's alibi. The father had deposited a check in a Commerce bank the day of the murder, and witnesses confirmed he had made his regular stops, he said.

``The only other thing I could have done was document a little bit better what I did do,'' Clark said. ``I took what my client told me and did the best I could. I did nothing wrong.''

Cudjo's new defense attorneys, who could not be reached for comment Friday, have cited a statement made by the 5-year-old. Honnaka said the boy told a man working on a home nearby, ``Look what my daddy did to my mommy.''

In addition, a neighbor said she thinks she can recall seeing the husband's car at the home sometime that morning, Honnaka said.

To prepare for the upcoming hearing, detectives said they are talking again to witnesses, deputies, the retired detectives who handled the investigation and anyone who may have had a connection with the case.