Posted on Thu, Sep. 4, 2008
By Joseph A. Slobodzian
A teenager yesterday told a Philadelphia jury how he and a friend found the body of 16-year-old Luis Navarro in a wooded clearing in Juniata Park, where the victim had gone to ride his new dirt bike.
"I was just thinking it can't be him, it just can't be," Carlos Crespo, 14, testified, describing his friend's bloodied body lying facedown in Tacony Creek Park. "I can't do nothing more [for him] now."
Crespo was one of a half-dozen witnesses called by the prosecution to testify on the opening day of the murder trial of Eric Smith, the 18-year-old Summerdale man accused of ambushing and killing Navarro, 16, on July 28, 2007, because he wanted the boy's new green-and-white Kawasaki dirt bike.
"Luis Navarro did not know what waited for him on those trails," Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Selber told the Common Pleas Court jury, referring to the trails in Tacony Creek Park used by local youths as a track for riding motorized dirt bikes and "four-wheelers."
Selber said witnesses would testify that Smith and a friend took cover as they heard the motor sounds of Navarro approaching on the dirt bike, his parents' surprise gift for getting good grades in school.
As Navarro roared past, Selber said, Smith drew a .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol and fired five times, hitting Navarro three times in the back.
Smith, the prosecution maintains, took the Kawasaki and left the scene. Two days later, he was arrested after a construction worker in the 800 block of Marcella Street in Summerdale allegedly spotted Smith and friends walking the tarp-covered dirt bike and contacted police.
Police found the bike and the murder weapon in the garage of one of Smith's friends, Selber said.
Defense attorney Daniel A. Rendine urged the jury to keep an open mind and said he would show that some of Smith's friends might have falsely incriminated Smith because they feared being charged in the murder.
About 20 friends and relatives of the Navarro family attended the trial yesterday morning to support Luis' parents, Luis Navarro Sr. and Caroline Lopez, who sat near the front of the courtroom.
Several times, the parents began weeping and had to leave, such as when photos of their son's body were shown to the jury and when the Kawasaki - its front shield and fender pieced by bullet holes - was wheeled into the Criminal Justice Center courtroom.
Luis Navarro Sr. testified briefly, telling the jury how he and his wife bought the bike - "he wanted that specific bike" - because his son maintained good grades and had not become involved in street life and crime in Juniata Park.
"He got to ride it maybe three times. He waited for us to get home from work before riding it," Navarro said, his brow deeply furrowed as he struggled to maintain his composure.
"I brought him his helmet that day just in case he fell," Navarro added. "He barely knew how to ride that bike."
Contact staff writer Joseph A. Slobodzian at 215-854-2985 or jslobodzian@phillynews.com.
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