SnapGlow.TV: Modern Gems Galore! A Philadelphia prosecutor told a jury this morning that the evidence will show that three teenagers demonstrated a "malicious disregard for the value of human life" when they randomly selected Sean Patrick Conroy as the victim to prove to a friend they could hit someone.
"You can't walk away when the game goes bad . . . You can't say I wasn't down with that," said Assistant District Attorney Jacqueline Juliano Coelho in her opening statement to the jury in the murder trial involving Conroy's death from a stress-induced asthma attack.
Nashir Fisher, 17; Ameer Best, 18; and Kinta Stanton, 17 - are charged with third-degree murder and conspiracy in the unprovoked March 26, 2008, attack on Conroy, 36, manager of a Center City Starbucks, on the concourse at 13th Street station of the Market-Frankford Line.
Coelho's opening was followed by remarks from the defense attorneys, each of whom tried to separate their client from the other two or, in one case, shift the blame to them.
Lee Mandel told the jury that Fisher accompanied the other Simon Gratz High School students that day but was "merely present."
Mandel said Fisher's statement to police will show that "he happened to be there but that he did not participate in the assault on Mr. Conroy. He did not strike a blow."
Best's attorney, Richard Brown, asked the jury to keep an open mind because the evidence will show that the blows Conroy sustained did not kill him.
Brown said the medical evidence raises the question "whether Mr. Controy was even aware he had asthma."
Lonny Fish, the lawyer for Stanton, argued that his client was mistakenly identified as one of the assailants.
Fish said he believes the evidence will prove that the four people who assaulted Conroy were Arthur Alston and Rasheem Bell - both have already pleaded guilty - Best and another teen who purportedly egged on the five arrested in the incident.
After the openings, testimony will begin in a trial expected to take a week.
The attack on Conroy was the first and most serious of several assaults on people last year in the subway concourses that riveted public attention on the issues of random violence and the safety of Philadelphia's subways.
News coverage since the incident has been so heavy that the judge on Thursday issued a gag order barring the prosecutor, three defense attorneys, and the families of Conroy and the teens from talking with reporters.
The attack occurred about 2:35 p.m. on March 26, 2008, a time high school students are often in the subway on their way home.
Police said Conroy, of South Philadelphia, had just finished his shift at the Starbucks store at the westbound platform of the El.
Police said the teens jumped Conroy, pushing and swinging at him. A sergeant patrolling the concourse rushed to the scene and the teens fled but Conroy was onD the floor, complaining of chest pains and trouble breathing. He was taken to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:09.
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