Prosecutor argues for death for cop-slaying defendants in closing

A PHILADELPHIA JURY yesterday heard more than six hours of impassioned closing arguments from two defense attorneys seeking to save their clients' lives and a prosecutor trying to send them to death row for allegedly robbing a bank and murdering a city cop two years ago.

Testimony during the four-week trial of Eric Deshann Floyd, 35, and Levon T. Warner, 41, indicated that the gunman was their accomplice, Howard Cain, 34, who shot police Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski eight times several blocks from the Port Richmond bank the three had just robbed on May 3, 2008. Police killed Cain shortly afterward.

But the defendants are just as responsible for Liczbinski's death because they shared the legally necessary "specific intent to kill" anybody that got in their way, Assistant District Attorney Jude Conroy told the jury.

They each had guns, he noted, and two minutes before Liczbinski's death both handled the murder weapon - a Chinese-made SKS assault rifle.

"They were armed to the gills. Death was to be expected if somebody got in the way," Conroy said.

Both defendants' attorneys told the jury their clients did not commit premeditated, first-degree murder because Cain alone killed Liczbinski.

Earl Kauffman urged the jury to return a second-degree murder conviction for Floyd, saying such a sentence would "fully protect society from Eric Floyd."

A killing that takes place during a felony, second-degree murder carries a life sentence without parole.

"Throughout Eric Floyd's criminal career," said Kauffman, "he never shot, he never killed anyone."

Warner's attorney, W. Fred Harrison Jr., portrayed him as a mentally challenged "dummy" who foolishly followed Cain. While Cain and Floyd had been planning the robbery for weeks, Warner was recruited by Cain the night before, he noted.

Cain and Floyd robbed the grocery-store bank disguised head to toe in female Muslim attire, Harrison said, while Warner showed up wearing an attention-drawing dreadlock wig and surgical mask.

"I submit to you that he is not playing with a full deck," said Harrison, who asked the jury to find Warner not guilty of first-, second- and third-degree murder.

Both defendants also face numerous other charges, including robbery and weapon offenses.

As Liczbinski, a 12-year veteran, trailed close behind the getaway Jeep driven by Floyd, he had no way of knowing what "sophisticated" team work was going on inside the vehicle, Conroy said.

"Bang him," someone shouted. Cain, in the front passenger seat, asked for the assault rifle, prompting back-seat passenger Warner to hand it to him, according to statements the defendants gave homicide detectives.

Floyd stopped the Jeep at the intersection of Almond and Schiller streets, where Cain got out and opened fire as the officer emerged from his cruiser.

Harrison disputed the accuracy of Warner's police statement and asserted that his client's DNA was not found on the murder weapon because he never touched it.

Conroy said the defendants were of one mind while trying to shake the pursuing officer.

"These guys went to great lengths to avoid detection. You weren't going to stop them, Steve - and you didn't," Conroy said to a mannequin dressed in the slain officer's bloodstained uniform.

Jury deliberation is set to begin Monday.