John "Jordan" Lewis will have to wait through the weekend to learn if he is to live or be sentenced to death for murdering a Philadelphia police officer.
The Common Pleas jury hearing his capital murder case was sent home just before 3:30 p.m. today by Judge Jeffrey Minehart.
On Monday the penalty phase of the trial will resume with the prosecution and defense teams delivering closing arguments, followed by the judge's instructions to the jury and the panel's deliberations on Lewis' fate.
Beginning late this morning and into the afternoon, the prosecution called as witnesses family and friends of late Officer Chuck Cassidy, while the defense called relatives of Lewis.
While trying to convince the jury to spare Lewis' life his relatives revealed that he had suffered the same tragedy that he caused Cassidy's children to suffer: Lewis' father was also murdered by a gunshot wound to the head.
John Lewis, Sr. was the unintended target of a drive-by shooting when Lewis was 5-years-old, testified his sister, Jasmine Glover, and grandmother, Vernetha Glover.
"He didn't have a strong man figure in his life," the grandmother said. "We can't teach you how to be a man," she said of the female relatives that took on the job of raising Lewis.
"He was always pushing for a relationship , but it never really happened," Jasmine, 21, testified.
Lewis, 23, sat between his two defense attorneys, his head bowed, as the penalty phase of his capital murder trial unfolded in Common Pleas Court.
The jury, which on Thursday found him guilty of first-degree murder in the Oct. 31, 2007 slaying of Cassidy, must now decide if he should live the rest of his days in prison or be sent to death row.
Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Selber, in her opening statement, told the jury that Lewis should be sentenced to death because the murder he committed while robbing a Dunkin' Donuts shop included four aggravating circumstances recognized under state law: he killed a police officer; he knowingly put others at grave risk of death; he committed the murder in the commission of another felony; and he has a significant history of violent felony convictions, resulting from his guilty pleas last week to six armed robberies.
Defense Attorney Bernard Siegel asked the jury to consider two mitigating factors to spare his life: the fact that he was 21 years old at the time of the crime, and a "catch all" factor, which is any evidence about the defendant's character or background that they believe makes the crime less terrible.
To underscore its case, the prosecution called to the witness stand Cassidy's widow, Judy, his oldest daughter, Kate, and his brother-in-law Anthony Conti, who read a statement by Colby, the late officer's youngest daughter.
In their statements, the Cassidy daughters referred to their father as their "superman," and as the funniest man they had ever known.
Before he died of his wounds a day after the shooting, his family prayed at his bedside at Albert Einstein Medical Center, Kate Cassidy, 22, said.
"This had to be a bad dream," she said she recalled thinking. "Our superman was now our angel."
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