Trial begins for 3 men accused of ballpark killing

THEY DIDN'T do it!

That, essentially, is what defense lawyers for the three men accused of beating a man to death in the parking lot of Citizens Bank Park told a jury yesterday afternoon as the trial began.

Somebody, however, did beat and stomp the life out of David Sale, 22, of Lansdale, who went to a Phillies game with a bachelor party the afternoon of July 25, 2009, and died of multiple blunt-force injuries that night.

Assistant District Attorney Richard Sax told the jury that the guilty parties are the three on trial: Francis Kirchner, 30, charged with first-degree murder for landing the "coup de grace" death kick to the head; James Groves, 48, and Charles Bowers, 37, who are both charged with third-degree murder.

"Beaten to death. Three-on-one for an extended period of time, long enough to [inflict] many and horrific and life-threatening injuries to David Sale," Sax said.

The defendants were part of a group of about 60 who took several buses to the game from Moe's Tavern in Fishtown.

Sale's party of about seven first clashed with the Moe's group in the stadium, then at the bar at McFadden's restaurant, located at the ballpark, and finally in the parking lot.

The defendants' attorneys all but suggested that Sax had put the wrong men on trial from the wild, drunken parking-lot melee.

Kirchner didn't even touch Sale that night, said his attorney, Jack McMahon.

"He never, never, never touched David Sale. He never saw David Sale," McMahon said, adding that Kirchner's only fight that night was with two black men, whom he didn't name. Sale is white.

And as Sale's mother and her husband sat just feet away, McMahon lambasted the victim as a violent drunk who was looking for trouble - and found it.

"David Sale was a drunken, obnoxious, arrogant human being," McMahon thundered. "David Sale is looking for a fight, he's begging for a fight, he's asking for a fight."

Kirchner, who has been held without bail for more than two years, will testify on his own behalf, McMahon said.

Defense attorney Brian McMonagle said Bowers, his client, fought briefly with Sale before breaking off to fight with Sale's best friend, Dan Curran.

While Bowers was fighting with Curran, McMonagle said, another man kicked Sale in the head, snapping his neck back, while he was trying to get up. Curran and other witnesses would testify to that, McMonagle said.

"He didn't murder anyone. He got into a fight. He got into another fight, and while he was fighting, someone else ended the life of David Sale," McMonagle said of Bowers, who, like Groves, is out on bail. Groves' attorney, Scott DiClaudio, said his client was 100 yards away when he realized that his friends from Moe's were fighting. Groves jogged over, punched Sale's midsection twice, uttered, "It's over," and walked away, DiClaudio said. "He did not kick anyone," he added.