Case updates
Two guilty in 2010 robbery-murder of South Philly man; DA's office appeals new trial for Kensington rapist.
I wanted to report developments in two cases I've been following for some time.
More than four years after 20-year-old Anthony DeMarco was gunned down in a robbery while walking with friends in the 200 block of Jackson Street in South Philadelphia, two men have been found guilty of second-degree murder by a Philadelphia jury.
On Nov. 26, a Common Pleas Court jury convicted Dawud Abdul-Hakim and Kevin Williams in DeMarco's Oct. 20, 2010 slaying.
Abdul-Hakim, 22, and Williams, 22, were each found guilty of the felony-murder count as well as robbery, conspiracy and gun charges. Judge Lillian Ransom immediately sentenced Abdul-Hakim to the mandatory life in prison without parole. But the judge ordered a presentence investigation for Williams and set Jan. 10 for his sentencing.
It was the second trial for both. A Common Pleas Court jury could not reach a verdict in a trial that ended Oct. 9, 2012.
DeMarco's killing stunned neighbors, who at that time recalled him as a popular neighborhood basketball player and carpenter whose family was active at the nearby Our Lady of Mount Carmel school.
Police said DeMarco and two friends were walking on Jackson Street about 11:30 p.m. when they were approached by two men with a gun.
When the two men brandished the gun and demanded money, police said, DeMarco tried to grab the gun and ended up wrestling on the ground with one of the would-be robbers. The gunman tossed the weapon up to his partner, police said, who fired several shots at DeMarco, hitting him in the back and stomach. DeMarco died shortly after midnight at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
The Philadelphia District Attorney's office has appealed to the state Supreme Court an October ruling by the Superior Court that vacated the 30- to 66-year prison term of a Kensington man who admitted raping an 11-year-old girl.
The Superior Court, in a 6-3 opinion, ruled that the Philadelphia trial judge erred by not letting Jose Carrasquillo withdraw his guilty plea before sentencing. The divided appeals ordered that Carrasquillo be tried for the June 1, 2009 rape of the 11-year-old and the attempted assault of a 16-year-old girl.
Carrasquillo, 30, is in the Camp Hill state prison near Harrisburg.
He pleaded guilty to the June 2009 rape of the 11-year-old and the attempted assault of a 16-year-old girl who escaped and whom Carrasquillo pursued into the cafeteria of Kensington High School before being scared off.
His case gained national notoriety the following day when a vigilante crowd in Kensington cornered him on the street and beat him after police released his name and photo as a "person of interest" in the rape. The crowd held Carrasquillo until police arrived, and he spent several days recovering in the hospital.
At sentencing on Nov. 30, 2011, Carrasquillo tried to renege on his guilty plea despite DNA and fingerprint evidence incriminating him. Carrasquillo insisted he was innocent, was the Antichrist and victim of a murky government conspiracy to send him to assassinate the president of China. He could prove it all, Carrasquillo said, if only the prosecutors would give him a lie-detector test.
Prosecutors called Carrasquillo's sentencing hearing "gamesmanship" designed to manipulate his victims and the justice system.