Final Arguments Are Made In Shooting Near The Palestra Nathaniel Ortiz And Kyle Mclemore, Both 21, Are Accused Of Gunning Down Anthony Davis, 22, As Hundreds Of People Ran For Cover.

The defense contends that the two South Philadelphia men on trial in connection with a fatal shooting near the Palestra after last year's Public League basketball championship were at the scene but were not the gunmen.

The prosecution says Kyle McLemore and Nathaniel Ortiz are cold-blooded killers who waited for Anthony ``Tupac'' Davis to leave the March 1 game, and then killed Davis as hundreds of terrified spectators scurried for cover.

Those arguments lie at the heart of this murder trial, which began Monday and featured final arguments yesterday by a prosecutor and defense attorneys. McLemore and Ortiz, both 21, are charged with murder, aggravated assault and related offenses in the killing of Davis, 22, of North Philadelphia, and wounding of three others, including a University of Pennsylvania student working in a nearby campus building.

Assistant District Attorney Jude Conroy told the jury that the shooting capped a ``history of violence'' between the defendants from South Philadelphia and Davis and his friends, from North Philadelphia.

Conroy said McLemore and Ortiz went to the Palestra that Sunday to retaliate for a shooting in South Philadelphia the week before by Davis' brother, Craig, who is awaiting trial in connection with a drive-by South Philadelphia shooting last February.

``I'm not going to defend Anthony Davis,'' the prosecutor said, in his summation. ``I wish priests and deacons would have been hanging out together, but they weren't. The witnesses and the defendants are birds of a feather. They are bad guys.''

Davis was a ``violent young man'' who carried a 9mm gun in his car, the prosecutor said.

Defense attorneys told the jury that their clients went to the basketball game and got into a fistfight with Davis and his friends before the game.

But the defense contended that there was no credible evidence that Ortiz and McLemore had guns, or fired shots afterward.

Ortiz' attorney, Fortunato N. Perri Jr., said the eyewitnesses, Davis' friends, fingered the defendants to curry favor with prosecutors in their own drug and gun cases.

Perri said that only one witness, Oscar Tucker, a passenger in Davis' car, said he saw Ortiz approach the car with a ``dark object, like a gun'' in his right hand. Perri called a witness who said Ortiz was left-handed and would not have carried a gun in his right hand.