Posted on Wed, Oct. 21, 2009
By Joseph A. Slobodzian
A North Philadelphia man was sentenced this morning to 7 to 20 years in prison on his voluntary manslaughter conviction in last year's killing of a man watching a basketball game on Martin Luther King Day inside a recreation center named for the civil rights leader.
Bilal N. Gay, 18, was sentenced by Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Carolyn Engel Temin in the Jan. 18, 2008 shooting death of Charles "Frog" Trotman, 17.
Trotman was shot during a timeout at the Martin Luther King Jr. Recreation Center at 2101 Cecil B. Moore Ave.
That jury that convicted Gay on July 28 rejected the prosecutor's argument for a first- or third-degree murder verdict, apparently accepting Gay's testimony that he shot and killed Trotman after Trotman allegedly robbed him three times at gunpoint.
Assistant District Attorney Richard Sax has said Gay faces a maximum 16 to 32 year in prison, including a mandatory minimum five years for using a gun in the crime.
Sax had argued for a first-degree verdict saying there was no evidence Trotman's alleged robberies happened. No gun was found on Trotman's body and neither were the cell phone and $20 that Gay said Trotman stole from him at gunpoint 15 minutes before the shooting.
Contact Joseph A. Slobodzian at 215-854-2985 or jslobodzian@phillynews.com.
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