Northeast man found guilty in slaying over dog feces cleanup dispute

By Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: February 03, 2013

A Common Pleas Court jury Friday found Tyrirk Harris guilty of third-degree murder in a Northeast Philadelphia slaying that followed a dispute over dog feces.

Harris, 28, shot Franklin Manuel Santana last Valentine's Day after Santana confronted him about cleaning up after his dogs.

Assistant District Attorney Deborah Watson-Stokes said the trial was "one of the saddest cases in the nation" and that she would request that Harris get the maximum 20 to 40 years in prison.

Harris had a German shepherd and a Chihuahua, and Santana accused him of allowing the dogs to defecate on Santana's front lawn in Tacony. Santana, 47, went to Harris' house and told Harris to clean up the feces, according to evidence submitted in the trial. Harris then shot Santana seven times on the front porch of his Torresdale Avenue home.

The jury of eight women and four men also found Harris guilty of possessing an instrument of a crime. The jury deliberated Friday for about six hours.

After the verdict, Harris looked back at his sobbing fiancee and whispered to her. While waiting outside the courtroom, she and some of his relatives described Harris as a "good man" and a "hard worker."

The jury found Harris not guilty of first-degree murder, carrying a concealed firearm without a license, and carrying firearms on public streets. Harris' lawyer, James Berardinelli, described the verdict as a "mixed result" because first-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without parole.

At the April 26 sentencing, Berardinelli said, he will talk about Harris' character in hope of getting a sentence of six to 12 years. "Tyrirk has always been a good person," he said.

Contact Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman at sabdur-rahman@phillynews.com, or follow on Twitter @sabdurr.

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