Accused shelter killer is still awaiting trial in 2003 shooting

If the wheels of justice had turned faster, two men who worked at the Station House homeless shelter in North Philadelphia might not have been shot, one fatally.

The accused gunman, John Brock, was to face trial in another shooting - from 2003 - just six days before he allegedly killed Edward Barksdale, 43, and wounded another shelter worker on Jan. 17.

But for a variety of reasons, Brock, 32, hasn't faced trial in the 2003 attempted-murder case for the past 13 years.

Besides typical procedural delays, Brock became a fugitive, there was a legal challenge that ended with the state Supreme Court delivering a "watershed opinion" for speedy trials in Pennsylvania, and then his latest defense attorney suffered a heart attack just before trial.

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It was about 5:45 a.m. on June 2, 2003, when Brock, then 19, allegedly shot a man in a house on the 5100 block of Girard Avenue in West Philadelphia.

A resident, Valerie Copper, testified at a preliminary hearing she didn't know Brock. Her friend, Dorothy, brought him to her house. Brock wanted $10 because he wasn't satisfied with a sexual act her friend performed, Copper said.

Copper testified she gave Brock $5 and he left, only to return with a gun looking for Dorothy.

Copper said she was in her kitchen, and other people who were in her living room, including Etienne Johnson, told Brock that Dorothy didn't live there.

Johnson told police he didn't know the gunman, who was asking for $10. Johnson handed over his cash, but the gunman still shot him in the chest.

Responding officers spotted Brock and after a chase caught him. Police said a silver revolver fell while Brock was attempting to flee.

Cut while climbing over a razor wire topped fence, Brock was taken to a hospital, where police said they found chunks of crack cocaine on the suspect.

Brock's case was first listed for trial Dec. 15, 2003, before then-Common Pleas Judge Harold Kane, but was postponed because the court was presiding over another trial.

In early 2004, Kane allowed Brock to be released from jail and placed him on house arrest at his then-residence in West Philadelphia.

When, after additional delays, the case was listed for trial in March 2005, Brock failed to show up and a fugitive warrant was issued for his arrest.

On Jan. 25, 2006, police in Williamsport arrested Brock on drug charges and notified counterparts in Philadelphia that they had their fugitive.

Philadelphia did not send anyone to get Brock and he ended up in the state prison in Camp Hill after pleading guilty to a felony drug charge in the Williamsport case in September 2006.

In Philadelphia, a new attorney was appointed in February 2007 to represent Brock in the 2003 attempted murder case.

The attorney, Steven Laver, moved to dismiss the charges on the grounds the prosecution had not brought the case to trial within 365 days of "non-excludable time," as required by a speedy trial standard known as Rule 600.

Judge Kane, citing in part Philadelphia's delay in getting Brock back to the city, agreed and dismissed the charges.

Prosecutors spent five years fighting to bring the charges back, starting with a February 2008 Superior Court appeal.

Brock served his full sentence in the Williamsport case, and was released from state prison July 25, 2008. He returned to Philadelphia custody, but was granted bail by Kane on Aug. 20, 2008, while awaiting the appellate decision.

He returned to jail after being arrested in Philadelphia on Nov. 1, 2008, on robbery and simple-assault charges.

That case moved to trial and Brock, convicted of assault, was in custody until August 2010. Two months earlier, the Superior Court affirmed Kane's decision dismissing the attempted murder charges.

Prosecutors appealed again, this time to the state Supreme Court.

On Jan. 23, 2013, nearly 10 years after the shooting on Girard Avenue, the high court reversed Kane's ruling and reinstated the attempted-murder charges against Brock, saying he waived his right to a speedy trial when he went on the lam and didn't show up for court.

It also found that the speedy-trial rule requires the filing of a written motion.

J. Michael Farrell, the lawyer appointed to represent Brock in the 2003 case after Laver died of a heart attack and another attorney withdrew from the case, called the high court's decision a "watershed opinion."

Assistant District Attorney Cydney Pope, the latest prosecutor to handle the 2003 case, said: "That case - Commonwealth v. John Brock - is now the presiding law over Rule 600 concerning the dismissal of charges."

Even though the Supreme Court had settled the legal dispute, scheduling the trial became another matter.

As 2016 began, the trial was listed for Jan. 11 after the new judge in the case denied a defense motion to disallow ballistic evidence in the case because the gun had been accidentally destroyed by the police due to a clerical error.

But three days before the trial was to start, Farrell suffered a heart attack. At a Jan. 15 status listing, the trial date was postponed to Nov. 21.

Brock, who had been out on bail, was at the Criminal Justice Center on Jan. 11 and Jan. 15.

In another twist, federal authorities on Feb. 12 announced a grand jury indicted Farrell in an unrelated case in Maryland on charges of money laundering and witness tampering, accusing him of helping out a Maryland-based drug ring. He pleaded not guilty, and has declined to comment since his indictment was made public.

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Brock was staying at the Station House homeless shelter on North Broad Street near Lehigh Avenue, when early on Saturday, Jan. 16, police say he was kicked out because he was high and violent.

He was removed from the shelter and taken to a hospital for a mental-health evaluation, but signed himself out, police said.

Police say he returned to the shelter at 6:15 a.m. Jan. 17 and sought out Barksdale, the shelter worker, by name and shot him five times - in his head, shoulder, chest, abdomen, and thigh. Barksdale was pronounced dead at the scene.

He also shot and wounded another worker, Lamont Barham, 26, before running away, police said. He surrendered the next day after police named him as a suspect.

He is jailed without bail. Last Wednesday, a Municipal Court judge in the murder case ordered that Brock undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Attorneys are to return to court March 1 for a status of Brock's mental health.

Barksdale's relatives can only wonder if Barksdale would still be alive if Brock had already faced trial for the 2003 case.

"Maybe if justice would have prevailed 13 years ago, this wouldn't have happened," said his brother Bradford Barksdale, 39. "We don't know. All I could say is he caused some really deep pain to a lot of people."

shawj@phillynews.com

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@julieshawphilly