Defendant explains actions in Old City shooting trial

At times struggling to maintain composure, former Temple University law student Gerald Ung closed his attempted-murder trial Monday by trying to explain to a Philadelphia jury why he felt his life was in danger when he shot Eddie DiDonato in an early-morning confrontation last year in Old City.

Ung, 29, spent almost 90 minutes on the witness stand, giving a Common Pleas Court jury his version of the events that led to the shooting after Ung said DiDonato and three friends heckled and menaced him and his two companions on Market Street from Third to Fourth Streets.

Ung said DiDonato's friend Thomas Kelly twice rushed at him and his friends, throwing a punch and pushing, before Ung drew his .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol and told Kelly: "Back the [expletive] up."

Kelly did, Ung said, but DiDonato kept on, saying, "Who you going to shoot?"

"I tried to kick him [DiDonato] away first," Ung testified. "He grabbed my right leg and I started to fall backward and my shoe came off. I just remember seeing sparks and hearing pops."

The jury also heard audios of Ung's immediate 911 calls in which he pleads for an ambulance, says he shot a man, and is heard asking the wounded DiDonato, "Why did you make me do it?" Also heard is DiDonato's weak voice: "Please don't let me die."

Ung was the last defense witness to testify in the trial. Jurors begin deliberating Tuesday after getting legal instructions from Judge Glynnis Hill.

To determine guilt for attempted murder, the jury must decide if Ung legitimately believed his life was in danger from DiDonato and his companions - or if he fired in alcohol-stoked anger at one of a group of hecklers.

Assistant District Attorney Jan McDermott told the jury in her closing argument that Ung did not meet the legal requirements for self-defense because he did not first try such options as flight or calling police on his cellphone.

McDermott questioned Ung's judgment in bringing a loaded gun for an evening of drinking with friends. "This is Old City, not the Old West," McDermott said. "You can't bring a gun out at 2:30 a.m. and shoot somebody because you're angry because you've been dissed."

Ung, a Fairfax, Va., native, said he got a permit to carry the gun in his home state in 2008 before returning to law school in Philadelphia. Ung said that night was the first time he fired the gun.

Defense attorney Jack McMahon argued that Ung continued to retreat during the confrontation, most of which was captured on 70 seconds of silent video on cameras outside Fox29's studios at Fourth and Market.

McMahon criticized McDermott as second-guessing what the jurors saw unwind on the video.

"This happened in real time, in real situations, and, most important, real fear," McMahon told the jury.

"He was put in this situation by those people," McMahon said, pointing to DiDonato and his friends in the second row of the courtroom gallery. "He did what he thought he had to do under the circumstances."

Ung's testimony provided the only version of what started the altercation.

The two groups did not know each other but spent the evening clubbing in Old City. At 2:30 a.m., they met while trying to hail cabs at Third and Market near some scaffolding. DiDonato's friend Andrew DiLoreto jumped up and began doing pull-ups, to the cheers of his friends. Ung testified that his friend Joy Keh, a New York news photographer, tried to do a pull-up near DiLoreto. Ung said he saw DiLoreto try to "kick at" Keh, and yelled at her to come along.

Ung said DiLoreto yelled back at him: "I'll touch her if I want to," adding a derogatory term for homosexuals. The trash-talking escalated as Keh and Ung's other companion tried to pull him away and DiDonato and friends followed.

In questioning Ung, McDermott noted that Ung did his part to keep up the expletive-punctuated banter. "You had options, didn't you?" McDermott asked.

Ung insisted that the incident happened so fast he never thought of options, just as he could not remember how many times he fired. "It was like being in a movie, I was dazed," Ung said. "Bad movie," replied McDermott.