Man to be tried in Memorial Day weekend killing

The details of the beef that got Kenneth "Ken-Ken" Williams killed remain murky: It happened after a night of drinking on Memorial Day weekend, and the alleged shooter and a witness were Williams' friends.

The identity of the alleged shooter - Eric McFarland, 24 - might never have been known, had someone not started spreading rumors around Mantua that witness Dustin Goode was the real killer.

On Tuesday, Goode, 30, testified that he was roused from his apathy when he learned that neighbors believed he had shot Williams and that McFarland was about to tell police the same thing. After a quick consultation with a friend and his uncle, Goode testified, he went to see homicide detectives and implicated McFarland.

Goode was the only witness called by Assistant District Attorney Peter Lim in McFarland's preliminary hearing before Philadelphia Municipal Court Judge Teresa Carr Deni, who ordered McFarland held for trial on murder and firearms charges in Williams' death.

Williams, 24, shot in a shoulder and the back, was found after 1:30 a.m. May 25, Memorial Day, at a playground at 40th and Aspen Streets.

Questioning Goode, defense attorney Francis Carmen suggested that the Mantua grapevine was correct and that Goode was the shooter.

Goode admitted that he talked with Williams' girlfriend about arguing with Williams and told her, "She don't want to wake up without her baby's father."

Goode, however, denied owning a weapon, and described the argument as "over nothing, about him saying something about me getting into a fight with my friends."

Goode testified that he, Williams, and McFarland had spent the evening of May 24 drinking outside Williams' house. He said he had about eight beers and a bottle of malt liquor.

At some point, Goode said, he took a beer and walked across the street to the playground, sat on a ledge, and was "just trying to wind down."

Williams joined him, sat on a nearby bench, and talked about buying marijuana. Goode said McFarland came up behind him and began shooting at Williams.

"I was in, more like a state of shock," Goode testified, adding that he sat there for about five minutes before McFarland "told me to get out of there."

"Didn't you try to help [Williams] at all?" Carmen asked.

Goode said he did not try to get his friend help or call Williams' family, adding that he was still in shock.

After the hearing, Lim said he did not believe the defense argument that Goode was the shooter, and added that McFarland confessed to killing Williams in a statement to homicide detectives.

"He [Goode] ID'd the killer, who was five feet away at the time of the killing," Lim said.