Two charged in slayings of couple again change their minds

Twice, lawyers for Terry Ballard and Justen Smith told a Philadelphia judge that the accused were ready to plead guilty to last summer's slaying and robbery of a Strawberry Mansion couple.

Once before, at the last minute, Ballard, 27, and Smith, 20, changed their minds - and on Thursday they did so again, triggering an eruption of emotion among a dozen relatives of Rufus and Algladis Perry.

"They just left them there," sobbed Keya Perry, 40, who discovered the bodies of her parents in their home about 1 a.m. July 16, 2014. She had gone to their house in the 2500 block of North Spangler Street after she couldn't reach them.

With a woman having wrapped an arm around her shoulder in comfort, Perry rocked back and forth, crying: "They just left my parents. My parents are dead."

After the announcement that there would be no guilty pleas, Assistant District Attorney Richard Sax did his best to console the relatives. Then he had everyone return to the courtroom and asked court staff whether Common Pleas Court Judge Benjamin Lerner would speak to them.

Lerner agreed, returned to court, and told the relatives, "I have bad news to deliver.

"This is not a matter where anybody was not doing what they were supposed to do," said Lerner, referring to Sax; Gerald Stein, defense attorney for Smith; and Thomas L. McGill Jr., Ballard's lawyer.

Lerner, 74, a judge since 1996, who handles pretrial matters for all city homicide cases, then explained the law: Ballard and Smith are presumed innocent until proved guilty - a determination that can only be made after a trial or if they plead guilty.

"I know it's extremely difficult to experience in your position, as the defendants keep going back and forth, as these two guys have, as to whether or not they're willing to enter guilty pleas," Lerner said.

Lerner set a hearing for Thursday for Ballard and Smith to make a final decision.

"I told their lawyers today that if they're not going to do that [plead guilty] next week, I'm scheduling this case for trial," Lerner said.

Police said that Ballard grew up two blocks from the Perrys, and that his grandmother was close to the couple.

Ballard met Smith in Western Pennsylvania. On July 4, 2014, police said, they went to Atlantic City and stayed there, partying, until they ran out of money.

Police said they came back to Philadelphia hoping to get enough money to return west. On July 15, Ballard took his friend to the Perrys' house, where Algladis Perry, 66, recognized Ballard and let him in, apparently believing his grandmother had sent him over to help with chores.

When Perry caught Ballard rummaging through her kitchen, he punched her, dragged her into the living room, and strangled her, police have said. When Rufus Perry, 79, came to his wife's aid, Smith and Ballard smothered him with a pillow.

Police said the men made off with a gold chain taken from Rufus Perry's neck and a change jar with $120 in coins.