In closing, lawyers say defendants had no part in killing Sgt. Liczbinski

Levon T. Warner is, in the words of his defense attorney, a "numskull," someone whose "elevator doesn't stop at the top floor," a guy "one can short of a six-pack."

Eric DeShann Floyd's attorney called him a "career criminal," but one who "never shot and never killed anybody."

Although both defendants agreed to join Howard Cain in holding up a Port Richmond bank on May 3, 2008, their attorneys argued that they had no part in the hot-tempered Cain's sudden decision to shoot and kill Philadelphia Police Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski to end his pursuit of the fleeing robbers.

With testimony concluded after three weeks, Warner's attorney, W. Fred Harrison Jr., and Floyd's, Earl G. Kauffman, spent a total of four hours Friday making a last effort to dissuade a Common Pleas Court jury from finding the pair guilty of first-degree murder - a verdict that could lead to their execution.

The defense closings were followed by an impassioned presentation by Assistant District Attorney Jude Conroy. He argued that under conspiracy law, Floyd and Warner were as culpable in Liczbinski's death as Cain, who shot the 39-year-old veteran officer eight times with an SKS Chinese military assault rifle.

"In for a penny, in for a pound," said Conroy.

He stood before an array of the more than 106 exhibits he introduced, including three life-size mannequins in the disguises worn by the trio of bank robbers, another mannequin in Liczbinski's bloodstained bullet-ridden uniform, and the door from the sergeant's patrol car with colored dowels showing the path of two bullets that went through metal and hit Liczbinski.

"Everyone who participated in these crimes was a willing participant," Conroy told the jury. "It was like a football play. They didn't even have to talk to each other."

After a long day of summations from the three lawyers, the jurors went home for the weekend. They return Monday to begin deliberations after Judge Renee Cardwell Hughes instructs them in the law involving homicide, conspiracy, and robbery.

Floyd, 35, of North Philadelphia, and Warner, 41, of West Philadelphia, could face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder. Cain, 33, was killed by police later on the day of the Liczbinski shooting.

For Friday's closings, the courtroom was filled to its 171-person capacity.

District Attorney Seth Williams sat with the Liczbinski family, detectives, and others who helped investigate the bank robbery and killing. Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey, who has attended most of the trial, again took a seat next to the sergeant's widow, Michele.

On the opposite side of the courtroom was Warner's mother, Dolores. A constant and usually solitary presence at trial, she was joined Friday by Warner's wife, Denise, and several relatives.

Floyd's family had not attended the trial until Friday, when his mother, Diane, and 15-year-old daughter showed up for Kauffman's summation but left afterward.

Floyd himself was absent, as he has been since June 9, when he was barred for punching one of his attorneys. Apart from his appearance on the witness stand Wednesday, he has watched the trial by closed circuit television from a holding cell off the courtroom.

The jury had heard Floyd's and Warner's confessions to the bank robbery and their presence in the getaway car, so the defense attorneys focused on Cain.

Kauffman stressed that Floyd, in his statement, talked of his desire to abandon the getaway car and run, not confront and kill Liczbinski.

Trying to counter Warner's confession - in which the ex-boxer said Floyd told Cain to "bang him" before the shooting - Kauffman told the jury that "Howard Cain was going off. He didn't need anybody to tell him what to do. He just did it."

Harrison argued that Warner did not have the intelligence to think independently: "This was a Howard Cain production. He was the writer and director. He was the producer and he was the leader."

Conroy returned again and again to the conspiracy that Floyd and Warner joined, arguing that the scheme included not just robbing a bank but "taking a life if anybody gets in our way."