Without cell-phone evidence, judge orders man held on 3rd-degree murder in fatal shooting

A 22-year-old Southwest Philadelphia man will be held for trial on third-degree murder and related charges instead of first-degree murder, a judge ruled Monday in a case in which key cell-phone evidence was thrown out because of the alleged actions of two homicide detectives.

Common Pleas Court Judge Barbara McDermott said she didn’t think prosecutors offered enough evidence at a supplemental preliminary hearing to hold Marquise Noel on first-degree murder charges in the Feb. 11, 2018, killing of Tafari Lawrence, 23.

The District Attorney’s Office on Feb. 14 conceded that the cell-phone evidence — the key evidence linking Noel as a suspect to the fatal shooting — would not be introduced at his June trial because prosecutors contend that the detectives, Freddie Mole and Joseph Murray, had searched the phone at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center without a warrant.

The case drew media attention after District Attorney Larry Krasner, a former defense attorney who sued police 75 times, and a top supervisor, Patricia Cummings, filed a motion last Dec. 20 detailing the alleged unconstitutional search. They and the district attorney’s homicide chief, Anthony Voci, have said the detectives could face perjury charges.

Gregory Pagano, an attorney representing the detectives, has said that they were not searching the contents of the phone while at the hospital, but that Mole was trying to put the older-model flip phone into airplane mode so someone could not remotely erase information. The detectives obtained a search warrant later that day.

At Monday’s hearing, Assistant District Attorney Jason Grenell was tasked with showing what other evidence prosecutors had against Noel. Prosecutors allege that Noel was one of two shooters who fired 17 bullets at Lawrence and another man, Marcus Alexander, 24, at 75th Street and Elmwood Avenue. Lawrence, shot 11 times, was pronounced dead at Penn Presbyterian. No second shooter suspect has been arrested.

Officer Hugh Banister testified Monday that he responded to the shooting scene, then went to the hospital, where he saw Noel — whom he recognized from Southwest Philadelphia — in a wheelchair. Noel told him that he had been at a Checkers restaurant at 58th Street and Baltimore Avenue in West Philadelphia, and was shot by an unidentified person who tried to rob him.

Grenell read to the judge another officer’s report in which no evidence of a shooting was found at 58th and Baltimore.

He also played a video recorded interview of Noel by Mole and Murray inside Police Headquarters on Feb. 12, 2018. Noel said after getting food at the Checkers drive-through, he had been driving on a nearby street and had to pull over because his silver Volkswagen Passat “started running funny.”

He told the detectives he was outside checking his car when a gunman approached, the two tussled, and he was shot twice in a leg. Murray, in the video, appeared skeptical of the account, saying that no one had called 911 about a shooting in that area.

Noel’s attorney, Bill Davis, argued in court Monday that there was “not one scrap of evidence” linking Noel to the shooting scene at 75th and Elmwood.

A hearing was set for Wednesday to determine whether Noel should receive bail or be put on house arrest.