Trial Opens in Slaying of Starbucks Manager

Lawyers for the three teenagers accused of causing the death of a Starbucks manager on a SEPTA concourse last year maintained their clients' innocence during opening trial statements this morning.

Lee Mandell, representing Nashir Fisher, said his client was with the other teens that March 26, 2008 day when Sean Patrick Conroy was beaten to the point that he suffered a fatal asthma attack. But Fisher did not take part in the beating Mandell said.

"There is a very, very very, thin line between conspiracy and mere presence. So you have to listen carefully," he told the Common Pleas Court jury and two alternates, which consist of seven men and seven women.

Richard Brown, representing Amir Best, asked the jury to keep an open mind regarding the actual cause of Conroy's death, which he hinted could have been the result of an asthma attack and undiagnosed allergies. He said evidence about others involved in the attack who are not on trial would come up during the trial.

Lonny Fish, Stanton's attorney, said his client never hit Conroy, but told police the names of the four youths who did within an hour of being arrested.

"If Mr. Conroy was alive, he'd say four people jumped him and Kinta Stanton was not one of them," Fish said.

Assistant District Attorney Jacqueline Juliano Coelho told the jury that Stanton, 17, of Logan, Best, 18, of North Philadelphia and Fisher, 17, of Tioga, are guilty of the death Conroy. The three are charged with third-degree murder and conspiracy.

"How does one go from walking down the concourse, looking forward to being married to not being on the planet?" Coelho asked the jury.

She maintained that the three teens skipped school that day and randomly attacked Conroy, 36, as he made his way from his South Philadelphia apartment to the Starbucks store he managed on the subway concourse near 13th and Market streets.

The punches and kicks delivered by the three - plus two other teens who have already pleaded guilty - led to a fatal asthma attack, according to Coelho and a statement read from the assistant medical examiner assigned to the case.

"What this case is really about is what every mother says to her 2-year-old child: Keep your hands to yourself...Don't hit other people. Don't kick other people. Don't hurt other people," Coelho said.

"They didn't keep their hands to themselves," she said of the defendants. "They can't back out of it now."