Shooter in dog-doo slaying gets 20 to 40 years

TYRIRK HARRIS' FAMILY tried to convince a Common Pleas Court judge to go easy on him, to recognize that he'd always been a good kid who never gave his folks any trouble.

But in the end, there just wasn't any way of getting around the fact that on Valentine's Day a year ago, Harris, 28, shot his unarmed Tacony neighbor to death because of an argument.

An argument over dog poop.

A jury convicted Harris, 28, in February of third-degree murder for pumping six bullets into Franklin Manuel Santana, 47, when the two had an argument about Harris' German shepherd and Chihuahua defecating on Santana's lawn.

"I sat through this trial," a visibly irate Judge Barbara McDermott said yesterday, "and I was appalled by your behavior."

McDermott sentenced Harris to 19 to 38 years in state prison for third-degree murder, and one to two years for possessing an instrument of crime. The sentences will be served consecutively, McDermott said, so Harris' total sentence amounted to 20 to 40 years.

Before McDermott handed down the sentence, a steady stream of friends and relatives stood and painted a picture of Harris as a respectful young man who avoided drugs and violence.

"My son is a good kid. I never had no problems from him," said Harris' mother, Cynthia Attaway. "I'm very sorry about what happened . . . he's all I got."

Spencer Winston said Harris frequented Winston's neighborhood barbershop.

"He was a pleasure to be around," Winston said. "I never heard him curse, never heard him raise his voice. He's not just a customer - he's a friend."

Harris, a former school police officer, described how the fatal shooting had unraveled his plans for life: getting married, moving out of state, pursuing a law-enforcement career.

Now, Harris said, he's bankrupt, and the woman he loved has left him. He begged McDermott for leniency, and said he hoped "Mr. Santana's family can try and forgive me."

McDermott said Harris was an arrogant and angry young man. Santana, who was new to the neighborhood, had done nothing to deserve the brutal end to his life, she added. "When you chose to shoot [Santana], you left me no choice," she said.

Defense attorney James Berardinelli said he thought McDermott's sentence was fair. "It's a serious crime," he said.

Assistant District Attorney Deborah Watson-Stokes said she, too, thought the sentence was "appropriate."

Watson-Stokes noted that Santana's family, who did not attend the sentencing, had only lived in Tacony for about a month before the fatal shooting. "This was their introduction to Philadelphia," she said, shaking her head.