09/25/08 From age 10, a life of violence

She pointed to a 9-year-old girl dressed in a pink hoodie hobbling across the street on crutches and said she was one of three children whom Giddings had scrambled to visit immediately after getting out of prison.

Giddings' journey to prison began in 1998, when he was charged with robbing and shooting Robert Vargas, 31, during an attempted carjacking at Seventh and Butler Streets.

In the trial before Judge Hamlin in 2000, Vargas said that Giddings reached into the car and shot him in the legs after the carjacking.

Giddings took the stand and testified that he shot Vargas in self-defense, claiming that he was a street-corner drug dealer for Vargas and owed him $500.

Hamlin convicted him during a bench trial.

After Giddings was sentenced, he filed a jailhouse protest with the court that claimed that his defense attorney, Harry B. Seay, had failed to file an appeal on his behalf.

During the appeal proceedings, Seay testified that he had told Giddings that the six- to 12-year sentence was the best he could expect for a man with such a bad criminal record. He had faced a potential sentence of 22 1/2 to 45 years in prison.

"I was very honest and told him that the sentence that he had received, based on his record, was a gift," Seay testified. The court denied Giddings' appeal.

Contact staff writer Andrew Maykuth at 215-854-2947 or amaykuth@phillynews.com.