On the last day of testimony in a complex criminal conspiracy trial in Richmond County Superior Court, the mother of Bernard Overton, 22, testified to her son's whereabouts on July 23 and 24, 1997.

"He was at home," Ms. Overton said.

It was on July 23, 1997, the prosecution contends, that the six defendants named in the trial met at Carlston Coleman Jr.'s McDowell Street apartment and planned revenge against Bernardo Arroyo, 19, and Ryan Singh, 21, for setting them up to be robbed.

Police contend Mr. Arroyo and Mr. Singh were taken from their apartment in the early morning hours of July 24, beaten, shot, placed into the trunk of a vehicle and set on fire in Warren County.

Ms. Overton, who was working as a radiology technician at Doctors Hospital, testified that when she arrived at her Hephzibah home from work at 9:30 p.m. July 23, her son was at home with his sister.

She told jurors that she received a call to go to work early on the morning of July 24. According to hospital records, Ms. Overton said, she arrived at the hospital about 4:30 a.m. and left again about 5:30 a.m. When she got back home, Mr. Overton was in bed asleep, she said.

"My child was being accused of a crime he did not commit ... so I went and looked back at my records," Ms. Overton told the jury.

District Attorney Danny Craig asked Ms. Overton why she never gave these details to the police. She said the police never questioned her about her son's involvement.

Mr. Overton and five others - Mr. Coleman, 30; Ronald Coleman Jr., 29; Kendric Dudley, 30; Charles Winters, 28; and Jarman Harold, 25 - have pleaded innocent to a charge of violating the state's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law.

The six men are accused of taking part in various crimes that prosecutors contend were a conspiracy to engage in a criminal enterprise in violation of the RICO law.

Reach Ashlee Griggs at (706) 823-3552.