Man guilty of murdering West Chester U. student

A Germantown man was convicted yesterday of first-degree murder, robbery, arson and conspiracy in the death of a promising 21-year-old West Chester University student - Asia Adams - three years ago.

Simeon Bozic, 29, a slender, almost delicate-looking man with shiny jet-black hair and a pencil-thin mustache, dropped his head when the verdict was read by the jury foreman after the two-week trial.

Bozic's sister, Janine Bozic, 31, who had insisted that her brother "wouldn't hurt a fly," collapsed into the arms of her mother, Donna Bozic, 60, who remained stoic.

Meanwhile, the mother of Adams, Shelah Harper, began to weep as she clutched a photo of her daughter and a Bible she had been reading throughout the proceeding. She rocked back and forth as friends comforted her.

Through her tears, Harper said she was pleased, just before Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Peter F. Rogers issued a gag order. Rogers issued the order just before the jury was allowed to go home.

When he is sentenced - no date has been set - Bozic faces the possibility of either life in prison or death.

As jurors loudly deliberated over two days, bits of their shouts and arguments were audible in the courtroom. Judge Rogers admonished them, but the heated discussions continued, especially after jurors asked for and received a definition of first-degree murder.

Still, the motive in the murder remained cloudy. Both Bozic and his codefendant, Thomas "Napoleon" Strode, were friends of Adams who hung out at her house over the weekend she was killed. Strode, 28, was said to be dating Adams at the time of her Nov. 7, 2004, murder.

Strode's trial on the same charges of murder, robbery, arson and conspiracy is scheduled for February.

Assistant District Attorney Carlos Vega argued that robbery was the motive in the case. He said the two stole $500 from Adams. They also used her ATM card to extract $700 from her account after they tortured her, he said.

The two men, according to the prosecution, took turns smashing Adams in the head with a shovel as she sat naked from the waist down in a chair. Vega dragged the chair into the court as a "witness."

The two men then used a kitchen knife to cut Adams' throat. Vega said the two men returned to the house on Seymour Street the next day to clean up and to attempt to destroy evidence by setting Adams' house and her bed on fire as she lay in it.

Bozic's attorney, Daniel A. Rendine, argued that his client had been under "duress" and was coerced into helping Strode with the murder. Their cases were separated, Rendine said, because of "conflicting defenses."

Rendine said that Bozic, of the 5300 block of Wayne Avenue, was afraid not to go along with the murder for fear of retribution to himself or his family by Strode, who lived in the 200 block of West Duval Street.

Vega countered that Bozic and Strode were "best friends."

At one point during the murder, he said, Bozic and Strode cut Adams' throat together like a couple cutting "a wedding cake."

Adams' family has remained tight-lipped during the trial to avoid for influencing the trial for Strode.

They have created a Web site in honor of Adams, a scholarship student at West Chester University who was working on a research project about violence against women.

Her mother has started a foundation called the "Asia Adams Save Our Children Foundation." It is designed for youths 4 to 24 to "develop healthy goal-oriented lifestyles by improving emotional, physical and spiritual health."

Money for the foundation is raised through grants, according to family members.

Before the judge's gag order, Bozic's mother, Donna, said the verdict "nauseated me."

"I thought they would see this with a more discerning eye," she said. "I still feel he was forced into it."