INVESTIGATORS TESTIFY WOMAN'S CONFESSION GIVEN FREELY.

Byline: Jeannette DeSantis Daily News Staff Writer

Two veteran sheriff's investigators testified Tuesday that a 52-year-old woman on trial for setting a fire that killed her invalid husband voluntarily gave her confession.

Joy Hooker, charged with murder for the death of her husband, Thomas Hooker, 58, a former LAPD sergeant, had claimed that the two investigators coerced her into giving a taped confession with threats about prison life and promises of leniency.

Sgt. Tommy Harris of the Sheriff's Department Homicide Division, denied threatening Hooker during the marathon interview he and his partner, Sgt. Doral Riggs, had June 1, 1993, at the Palmdale substation, but admitted that he was blunt with her.

``I told her that I thought she was lying,'' said Harris, a 24-year veteran of the Sheriff's Department. ``I told her I really believed she had some involvement other than what she was telling us.''

Harris said Hooker first gave them a statement that she knew nothing about how the fire started. But after a 30-minute break in the taping, Hooker told investigators she was ready to tell the truth, and soon the tape was rolling for her confession.

``She said they had talked about setting the fire beforehand,'' Harris said. ``At that point, Sgt. Riggs told her that if what she was saying was the truth, then she was talking about murder and she said, `I know.' ''

Hooker's public defender, Earl Siddall, had argued that his client was easily influenced by the male investigators because throughout her life, her actions have always been dominated by the men in her life.

Thomas Hooker, a retired LAPD sergeant, died of smoke inhalation on April 19, 1993, police said, after his wife and adopted son, David Hooker, set fire to the family's Littlerock home. Police said Hooker and her stepson were having a sexual relationship.

David Hooker, 33, was convicted of first-degree murder and two counts of arson. He was sentenced to 25 years to life.