Man, 21, gets life in teen's savage murder

Dressed in an ill-fitting black suit, Derrell Savage, 21, looked unfazed as he arrived in court for his sentencing hearing yesterday in the brutal 2005 murder of 15-year-old Christine Ham.

Before taking a seat, he glanced back at his family members. He saw two of his sisters fighting back tears at the sight of their brother cuffed and guarded by Common Pleas Court bailiffs.

Before Judge Jane Cutler Greenspan sentenced Savage to life in prison without chance of parole and 20 to 40 years for conspiracy, an unusual incident unfolded.

Assistant District Attorney Mark Gilson was speaking to a reporter when Savage's father mumbled an insult aimed at the victim and said that Gilson was "a piece of work."

After a screaming match between the two men, Savage's father was escorted out of the building.

Gilson asked Judge Greenspan to run the sentences on the murder and conspiracy charges consecutively.

"Death by disrespect is not tolerated in the city of Philadelphia," he said.

Savage was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

His lawyer, Perry DeMarco, asked the judge to consider his contention that his client was the least culpable of the three conspirators convicted in the murder.

But prosecutors said Savage helped two others, Demarcus Hamms and Felicia Dawson, both 21, stab, choke, beat and try to drown the high school sophomore.

"He lured her into that park that day, he helped hold her down, he was a pivotal person in this killing," Gilson said.

Hamms and Dawson were convicted of murder in separate trials and await sentencing. Another conspirator, John Garrett, 17, was placed in juvenile custody.

Prosecutors said Ham was killed because the conspirators believed she set them up in March 2005 when they were visiting her in Chester Township and were attacked by local gang members with sticks, bats and knives.

Ham's punishment, prosecutors said, came a month later on April 24, 2005, when Hamms, his girlfriend Dawson, Savage and Garrett lured Ham to Bartram Gardens Park in Southwest Philadelphia.

They stabbed her, beat her, tried to set her on fire and threw her alive and bleeding into the Schuylkill to drown.

She managed to escape the chilly waters, but died of her stab wounds.

Garrett admitted in juvenile court that he conspired with the three others to murder Ham. He will remain in juvenile custody until he is 21, Gilson said.

Gilson, who prosecuted all of the defendants, said of the sentence, "I'm pleased with the entire result.

"It was a bizarre, surreal experience," he said of prosecuting the cases back to back. "It was something that I have never experienced in all of my 20 years of being a prosecutor.

Ham's mother, Joan Ignudo, sat in the back of the courtroom, slumped over and quietly sobbed when Gilson detailed again the final moments of her daughter's life.

As tears streamed down her face, she said of the sentence, "It doesn't matter. Nothing does. It's not going to bring my daughter back. Christine didn't deserve to die like that."

Demarcus Hamms and Felicia Dawson are scheduled to be sentenced next week.

Perry DeMarco was not available for comment. *