The family of late Philadelphia Police Officer Chuck Cassidy spoke of a "superman" who worked long hours and spent little on himself to make sure he could provide for his stay-at-home wife and their three young ones.

The family of his murderer, John "Jordan" Lewis, spoke of a troubled man who was kicked out of his home as a teen, who did not provide for his baby daughter and whose own father was murdered when he was 5 years old.

Lewis, 23, sat between his two defense attorneys, his head bowed, as the penalty phase of his capital murder trail unfolded in Common Pleas Court.

The jury, which on Thursday found him guilty of first-degree murder in the Oct. 31, 2007, shooting of Cassidy, 54, must now decide if he should live the rest of his days in prison or be sent to death row.

After hearing from both families, Judge Jeffrey Minehart dismissed the jury for the day.

On Monday, the panel of eight women and four men will hear the prosecution and defense teams' closing arguments, receive instructions from the judge and begin deliberating Lewis' fate.

Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Selber, in her opening statement yesterday, told the jury that Lewis should be sentenced to death because the murder he committed while robbing a Dunkin' Donuts shop included four aggravating circumstances recognized under state law:

He killed a police officer in the line of duty; he knowingly put others in grave risk of death; he committed the murder in the commission of another felony; and he has a significant history of violent felony convictions, resulting from his guilty pleas last week to six armed robberies.

Defense attorney Bernard Siegel asked the jury to consider two mitigating factors to spare his life: the fact that he was 21 years old at the time of the crime, and a "catch-all" factor, which is any evidence about the defendant's character or background that it believes makes the crime less terrible.

Siegel called Lewis' relatives as witnesses to shed light on his troubled background.

"He has to be punished for what he did, but a life for a life will not bring him back. We ask for mercy from the court," said the defendant's grandmother, Vernetha Glover.

She told the court of Lewis' frustration at not being able to find a job.

" 'I'm trying to find work. I'm trying to work towards my GED and take care of my daughter, but I don't know what's going on, Big Mom. It seems like doors are being closed on me,' " she recalled him saying.

Lewis' mother, Lynn Dyches, a Philadelphia correctional officer, said: "Like most of us do, my son made a horrible mistake. He robbed a couple of businesses.

"He robbed a family," added Dyches, who said she gave birth to Lewis at age 16 and kicked him out of her house when he was 17 for failing to obey rules.

Lewis' father, John Sr., was the unintended target of a drive-by shooting when Lewis was 5, testified his sister, Jasmine Glover. The loss left her brother without a strong male role model, she told the jury.

"A son needs a father. John was always searching" for that guidance, Jasmine Glover, 21, said.

To underscore its case, the prosecution called to the witness stand Cassidy's widow, Judy, his oldest daughter, Kate, and his brother-in-law Anthony Conti, who read a statement by Colby, the late officer's youngest daughter.

In their statements, the Cassidy daughters, who are in college, referred to their father as their "superman," and as the funniest man they had ever known. He and two relatives had dressed like the Three Stooges at his last family Halloween party just days before his death.

"Looking back at the picture now, it feels like a different world," Conti read for Colby.

"I wish that he could have been a grandfather and taken my mom to all the places they dreamed of," said Kate, 22, who noted that it has been 750 days since she last saw her father in his deathbed at Albert Einstein Medical Center.

"For 750 days I've been trying to make some sense of this nightmare, of why he was taken from us. But I still can't find the answer."

Judy Cassidy, who met Chuck in high school, said she has lost interest in much of the things she once enjoyed, including going to church, to the Shore and celebrating birthdays and holidays.

"It is not easy when you lose your rock."