The driver of the stolen car in which a 14-year-old girl was fatally shot testified yesterday, under a guarantee of immunity, that his earlier statements about having seen who fired the shots were false.

LeVaughn Brown, who was 14 when the incident occurred on Memorial Day 2004, had pleaded the Fifth Amendment at least 25 times Monday, refusing to repeat his claim that he saw defendant Brandon Robinson of Penn Hills shoot at the car as he and three teenage passengers drove through Lincoln-Lemington.

Karis Adams, who was in the backseat of the green 1995 Buick Regal, died of a single gunshot to the left temple. Mr. Robinson is on trial for homicide in the girl's death.

Another suspect in the shooting, Eugene Cooper, whom Mr. Brown also had previously identified, has been granted a separate trial.

Yesterday, after being assured by Common Pleas Judge Anthony M. Mariani that his testimony would not be used against him, Mr. Brown recanted what he had told police investigators in 2004, saying that he had not seen the shooters along Lincoln Avenue that day, before, during or after the incident.

During questioning at a police station on the North Side, Mr. Brown said, he told investigators that Mr. Robinson and Mr. Cooper had fired the shots that killed Karis. He repeated those identifications at the coroner's inquest.

Yesterday, however, Mr. Brown said that his identification of Mr. Robinson and Mr. Cooper had been based on what he had been told by his friend, Ronald Youngblood, who had been in the car's front passenger seat.

"I didn't know if it was true. I didn't personally see it," he said under questioning by Assistant District Attorney Jennifer DiGiovanni. "I was driving.

"But I never told [police] that Ronald Youngblood had told me that. I tried to make it seem like, 'Yeah, I seen them.' But I didn't personally see them."

"Why didn't you tell them that Ronald Youngblood saw [them]?" asked Ms. DiGiovanni, a question also addressed later by Mr. Robinson's attorney, Michael O'Day.

Mr. Brown's response was that he was facing previous charges at the time, in addition to being the driver of the stolen car, and that detectives told him it would be easier on him if he identified the shooters.

Beyond that, he said, "I don't know. I wasn't thinking right then. I had just seen somebody killed right behind me, and I was 14 years old."

City police detectives believe the May 31, 2004, incident was retaliation for a drive-by shooting at Paulson Park one day earlier, in which two men suffered nonfatal gunshot wounds and a woman was grazed by a bullet.

Witnesses said a green Ford Taurus was involved in the shooting. Police say that Mr. Robinson and Mr. Cooper saw what looked like the same car and fired, but the teens in the car were not their intended targets.

The trial of Mr. Robinson is to continue this morning.