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Suspect in rape case cops a plea

They liked the Cadillac's big, shiny tire rims. That's why they followed the car from a nightclub near Delaware Avenue last summer, according to testimony and a statement made by Phillip Price.

They liked the Cadillac's big, shiny tire rims.

That's why they followed the car from a nightclub near Delaware Avenue last summer, according to testimony and a statement made by Phillip Price.

Price, 22, of Salisbury, Md., had been facing a slew of charges for his alleged role in last summer's robbery and rapes of two young women in their Port Richmond home and the severe stomping and pistol-whipping of one of their boyfriends.

Yesterday in Common Pleas Court, after hours of negotiation, Price turned on a codefendant, Jacoby Robinson, 21, of Wilmington, and testified for the prosecution.

Price pleaded guilty to carjacking, the robbery of one woman, and conspiracy in return for a sentence of six to 12 years in prison, followed by 10 years' probation.

Before an alert jury yesterday afternoon, Price testified that he, his half-brother Labrente Robinson, and their cousin, Jacoby Robinson, had decided to buy a .357-caliber Magnum revolver in Wilmington early on July 15 and drive to Philadelphia in a red Ford Focus "to rob someone."

At the Zee Bar, at Spring Garden and Front streets, what caught their eyes, he said, was a Cadillac with big rims.

"We was waiting for the car to leave," Price testified. He said they thought the driver "was a drug dealer" because of "the rims on the car."

Price testified that he and the Robinsons followed the Cadillac, with its male driver and female passenger, to Cumberland Street. The Robinsons got out of the car and went down another street, Price testified. Jacoby Robinson had the gun, he said.

Price said he then drove away because "I was tired."

Later that day, Price testified the Robinsons "said they stole the car" and told him to meet them at a house in New Castle, Del., where a woman named Latisha Brown lived.

At the house, Price admitted to sitting in the Cadillac and touching the steering wheel. He said he and the Robinsons then went to Wilmington to try to remove the rims from the car, but were unsuccessful.

Price said he first learned of the alleged rapes from a police detective. After he heard the two women's testimonies in court earlier this week, he agreed to testify for the prosecution, he said.

In moving testimony on Tuesday, one woman, a 25-year-old Temple University graduate, said Jacoby Robinson, the skinnier assailant, and Labrente Robinson, a heavier man, entered her home on Salmon Street, near Cumberland, and forced her to perform oral sex on them. Labrente Robinson also penetrated her anally and vaginally, she said.

She further testified that Jacoby Robinson put a gun in her vagina, grabbed her by the hair, put her head under a faucet and washed her mouth out with soap and hot water.

Her roommate, then a 21-year-old Temple student, testified that Jacoby Robinson pistol-whipped and stomped her boyfriend's head. She and her boyfriend had been at Zee Bar earlier that night. She said that a heavier assailant put his penis in her mouth and anus.

Labrente Robinson, 29, of Wilmington, pleaded guilty June 11 to rape and other charges.

As the sole defendant on trial yesterday, Jacoby Robinson just stared expressionless at Price as he testified. During cross-examination, Jacoby Robinson's attorney, Pierre LaTour, yelled at Price and called him a liar.

In testimony yesterday by Benjamin Levin, an analyst in the police DNA Identification Laboratory, LaTour pointed out that Jacoby Robinson's DNA did not match any samples from the two women or their clothing. *