Man pleads guilty to killing alleged witness

A GUNMAN WHO fatally shot a North Philly bodega cashier three years ago because she allegedly witnessed a prior homicide pleaded guilty Wednesday to first-degree murder and conspiracy.

Shawn Poindexter, 20, admitted gunning down Reyna Aguirre-Alonso, 33, on Jan. 23, 2012, inside the Caribe Mini Market at Mutter and Westmoreland streets.

Under a plea deal, Poindexter - who was 17 at the time of the shooting - was sentenced by Common Pleas Judge Barbara McDermott to 25 years to life in prison.

"This is one of the most outrageous types of crimes," the judge said of the slaying.

Poindexter's three co-defendants have pleaded guilty, including Jorge Aldea, 25, the man who committed the earlier homicide.

Aldea pleaded guilty last month to first-degree murder and a gun charge in the Nov. 25, 2011, shooting death of Luis Chevere, 22, outside the Caribe Mini Market, which cops have said Aguirre-Alonso saw from the apartment where she lived above the store.

He also pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, conspiracy and weapons charges in Aguirre-Alonso's slaying, and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Two others who planned Aguirre-Alonso's killing on Aldea's behalf - Aldea's girlfriend, Eliana Vazquez, 22, who was pregnant with his child at the time of their arrest in January 2012, and Raymond Soto, 23 - have pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, witness intimidation and conspiracy.

Soto is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday. Vazquez is slated to be sentenced June 4.

Poindexter had met his co-defendants in the weeks before he was asked to kill Aguirre-Alonso.

As he sat at the defense table Wednesday morning next to his attorney, W. Fred Harrison Jr., Poindexter, who has a boyish face and was wearing an oversized black suit, was ready to face trial.

But he decided to plead guilty at the last minute after McDermott told him it was his last chance to take a deal being offered by prosecutors and that the evidence against him was strong. The judge said if Poindexter took his case to trial and was convicted by the jury, he could have faced a minimum of 35 years in prison and that prosecutors would have sought a life sentence.

After looking back at his family members, including his grandmother, who were sitting in the courtroom gallery and nodding yes to his taking the plea deal, Poindexter told the judge he would take the deal and that he did commit the shooting.

Assistant District Attorney Carlos Vega, while reading a summary of facts in the case, said that Poindexter gave a statement to police admitting that he shot Aguirre-Alonso multiple times while she was working as a cashier in the store at about 7:40 that night.

He said another worker in the store witnessed the shooting, and that man saw the gunman wearing a mask, gloves and a hoodie.

Vega said Soto and Vazquez would have been called as prosecution witnesses in Poindexter's trial. Soto would have testified that he was aware that Aguirre-Alonso witnessed Chevere's murder. Soto also would have testified that he obtained the gun used in her killing and that he and Aldea drove Poindexter close to the mini market and told him to make the shooting look like a robbery, the prosecutor said.

Vazquez would have testified that after Chevere's slaying, she went to the police homicide unit to find out who the witnesses in the case were, and learned that Aguirre-Alonso had been brought in for questioning.

Vega said after the hearing that he could not disclose whether or not Aguirre-Alonso told detectives anything about the Chevere murder because that evidence was not introduced in court.

The victim's sister, Alma Aguirre, tearfully told the judge through a Spanish interpreter that her sister came to Philadelphia from Mexico City and her death has deeply affected their whole family.

"It's not just the impact on me," she said. "It's the pain of a mother and two brothers. My sister came to this country 10 years ago and to have to return her to a mother in a box," she said as she wept.

She said her sister was her only sibling in the U.S. She said her kids ask, " 'Mommy, why are you crying?' But I can't tell them."

Poindexter, when asked by the judge if he wanted to make a statement, shook his head no.

His uncle, Dwight Roussaw, told the victim's sister that "there's not much I can say to comfort you . . . but I wish there was something I could do."

The defendant's aunt, Mary Bryant, expressed her condolences. She contended Poindexter "is a good person" and "a great role model" to her two younger sons despite what he did.

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