Her sister killed by gunfire, she pleads guilty to shooting witness

Kaya Shapiro watched her sister Jovonne Stelly fall from a fatal gunshot in March 2007, amid bullets flying following an argument in their Southwest Philadelphia neighborhood.

Stelly, 28, a mother of four, died trying to shield her children from the gunfire, police said.

Last month, the women's brother, Michael Stelly, 34, was acquitted of murder charges relating to Jovonne's death. Four others were found guilty of various charges.

Yesterday, Shapiro, 20, pleaded guilty to charges of attempted murder, witness intimidation and a weapons charge, for shooting a man who had been a witness in her sister's murder case.

On July 12, 2007, a few days after a preliminary hearing in the Jovonne Stelly murder case, Shapiro allegedly had a friend ask Leroy Brown to come outside to talk with her.

"When he came out, he saw Shapiro - they had been friends before the shooting - and they walked around the corner and she shot him," Assistant District Attorney Ed Cameron said yesterday.

"She shot him in the abdomen, and he's lucky to be alive," Cameron said of Brown. "The bullet nicked the femoral artery, and if he hadn't gotten to the hospital in time, he would be dead."

Seven other charges against Shapiro were dismissed, including aggravated assault, retaliation against a witness and conspiracy to murder, said her defense attorney, Bernard L. Siegel.

"We were both cognizant of the facts and the witnesses of the case," Siegel said later yesterday.

"She felt it was in her best interests to accept responsibility and leave it to the judge to determine the sentencing." Sentencing was set for June 29.

According to witnesses at the murder trial last month for several defendants accused of killing Jovonne Stelly, Jovonne had tried to calm things down before the shooting.

She even had urged Shapiro to walk away from the argument brewing between members of Stelly's family and those of another family, on Pentridge Street near 58th.

But a police statement read at trial said that Shapiro replied to her sister: " 'F--- you! Go back down the street! I'm grown . . . .' " *