Phila. man found guilty of murder in bloody home invasion
A Philadelphia jury found Ali Marsh guilty of first-degree murder Tuesday for his role in the bloody 2012 home invasion that killed a Strawberry Mansion man, seriously wounded his wife, and traumatized their two young sons.
A Philadelphia jury found Ali Marsh guilty of first-degree murder Tuesday for his role in the bloody 2012 home invasion that killed a Strawberry Mansion man, seriously wounded his wife, and traumatized their two young sons.
Marsh - who was removed from the courtroom Friday after he testified in his own defense, and accused prosecutors of "railroading" him and the judge of bias - had no visible reaction as the Common Pleas Court jury returned its verdict after about six hours of deliberations since Monday.
The verdict carries an automatic term of life in prison without chance of parole, but Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart ordered a presentence investigation and deferred formal sentencing until Dec. 15.
"There were no winners here today. Everybody comes out a loser," said Sherrell Paul, 42, whose husband was killed and who survived, but sustained 20 bullet wounds.
Marsh, 38, and alleged accomplice Charles Davis, 37, were charged with murder in the March 5, 2012, predawn home invasion at 3213 Cecil B. Moore Ave.
Davis, however, was not tried with Marsh because of a pretrial appeal on the issue of whether his wife's statement to detectives may be used against him.
According to trial testimony, the pair believed that the residents of the house, John Paul Jr. and his wife, had a large quantity of cash.
Waking the family, Paul resisted, and the two men began firing a total of 12 shots. Paul, 35, a paratransit driver, was hit first and died in the house. Sherrell Paul, a licensed practical nurse, survived in large part because her 13-year-old son, John III, called 911 and stayed on the phone until police and paramedics arrived.
John III and his brother, Jalil, 10, were not wounded in the gunfire.
The jury heard a recording of the boy's chilling 10-minute call to emergency operators and also testimony from the boy and Sherrell Paul.
Neither mother nor son, however, could identify Marsh or the other alleged gunman, and they had only fragmentary memories of the terror of being awakened in the night by armed strangers.
The key piece of evidence against Marsh presented by Assistant District Attorneys Jennifer Selber and Erin Boyle was a trail of blood - identified as Marsh's through DNA - from the front porch of the Paul house and down the sidewalk and street.
Despite the blood trail, defense attorney Coley O. Reynolds argued that investigators found no blood or other physical evidence that put Marsh inside the house.
215-854-2985 @joeslobo