Witnesses recall fearing Cassidy's killer

By MENSAH M. DEAN
Philadelphia Daily News

A parade of pizzeria cooks, cashiers and a customer were called as witnesses yesterday in the trial of John "Jordan" Lewis, who this week pleaded guilty to pulling six restaurant armed robberies in 2007 and fatally shooting Philadelphia Police Officer Chuck Cassidy during the final holdup.

The witnesses, some through tears, were called to help the prosecution paint a picture of Lewis, 23, as a violent robber-turned-murderer who deserves to be sentenced to death for Cassidy's Oct. 31, 2007, slaying.

"I was just thinking that he was going to shoot one of my kids," sobbed Danielle Rivera, recalling Lewis' Oct. 25 robbery of Feltonville Pizza, where she worked and where her 14-year-old son and 9-year-old-daughter were in the office watching television.

Her co-worker Edgar Ceciliano told of how Lewis pistol-whipped him after he spotted the cook trying to hide in the kitchen.

Lewis pulled Rivera's hair, pointed his gun at her kids and fired a bullet into the floor before he left with several hundred dollars, the workers testified.

Luis Rosario told the jury of the fear he and his 8-year-old son felt Oct. 20 when Lewis walked into their favorite carryout, Oasis Pizza, on north 5th Street.

While robbing the place, Lewis pointed his gun at Rosario twice, he said.

"I was more fearful for my son. To be 8 years old and to be in that situation," he said. "I don't go there no more. If I order food I have to have it delivered."

Despite Lewis' plea of guilt to a "general murder" count and to the robberies of two pizzerias and four Dunkin' Donuts from Sept. 18 to Oct. 31, the jury must still decide if he committed first- or second-degree murder.

If found guilty of second-degree, he faces life in prison without parole, while a first-degree conviction carries a sentence of either life with no parole or death by lethal injection.

If the latter should be the case, Lewis, a high-school dropout from North Philadelphia, would join six other men who are on Pennsylvania's death row for killing Philadelphia police officers, according to the state Department of Corrections.

In total, 221 people have been sentenced to death statewide.

Capt. John McClosky of the 35th Police District, with headquarters at Broad Street and Champlost Avenue, testified that the fatal visit Cassidy made to a West Oak Lane Dunkin' Donuts was part of his special assignment to make unannounced visits to area businesses that had been robbed.

McClosky said he chose the 25-year veteran for the assignment because he had good people and communication skills and common sense.

Testimony is scheduled to resume Monday morning.

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