DEFENDANT IN ARAMARK KILLING TESTIFIES SHOOTING WAS ACCIDENT.

Byline: Donna Huffaker Staff Writer

PASADENA - Murder defendant Stephen Kopy testified Tuesday that a loaded handgun inexplicably went off during a struggle with an Aramark executive, but that he confessed the killing to police just a few minutes later.

During his second day on the witness stand, the 64-year-old North Hills musician said he went to the Aramark headquarters last June to confront Andrew Camarata, his wife's boss, because he believed the two were having an affair.

Kopy testified he brought a gun to the office to show Camarata that he ``meant business.'' Camarata initially denied an affair with Martha Kopy, then admitted it, threw a chair and charged at his accuser.

At that point, Kopy testified, ``the damn thing went off.''

But Kopy could not answer prosecutor Jeff Jonas' questions as to how Camarata came to be shot twice - in the chest and abdomen - how the victim suffered a fractured skull, or why the gun expelled four shell casings.

In court Tuesday, Jonas played for the six-man, six-woman jury a tape of Kopy's statement to police immediately after the shooting. On the tape, laced with profanities, Kopy said, ``I didn't think I'd ever have the (expletive) guts to do it. I thought about it. I (expletive) admit it.

``I hope he's OK. I hope he's hurting, though - real bad,'' Kopy said on the tape.

Kopy's attorney, Vincent Oliver, has said Camarata died in the ``heat of passion,'' given that Kopy's wife was having an affair. He said Tuesday he plans to call two witnesses today who will corroborate Kopy's claims that he had tape recordings of romantic conversations between his wife and Camarata.