Tire Iron

A local judge "erroneously refused" to consider a tire iron as a deadly weapon when she gave probation to a white man convicted in the 1989 killing of an Hispanic teen-ager, a state Superior Court panel ruled. As a result, the panel in a 2-1 decision yesterday ordered Common Pleas Judge Lisa Richette to re-sentence Francis "Buzz" Scullin, 24, of Mantua, N.J., for killing Stephen Crespo, 15, of Feltonville, and either send him to jail or explain why she was deviating from sentencing guidelines.

"My grandmother hated me, and I hated her back," said Karen Ann Phillips, 21, in a statement to police. Yesterday, a Common Pleas jury convicted Phillips of the April 30, 1988, fatal beating and stabbing of her grandmother, Lucy Martin, 71. Judge Joseph D. O'Keefe immediately sentenced Phillips to life in prison. "I will be back," shouted Phillips, of Susquehanna Avenue near Emerald Street, as sheriff's deputies led her from the courtroom. Assistant District Attorney Roger King said Phillips went to Martin's apartment on Kensington Avenue near Somerset Street at 3:45 a.m. and used a tire iron to kill the elderly woman.

As Aimee Willard's parents bravely read a prepared statement describing their loss, police continued to search for clues in the slaying of their star athlete daughter. A Nike logo tattoo on the suburban 22-year-old's right leg helped identify her nude, battered, body that was found on a weedy lot in North Philadelphia. Yesterday her mother, surrounded by weeping relatives and friends, referred to the Nike slogan which she said defined her daughter's spirit: Life is short. Play hard.

Police are searching for a man in connection with three robberies at separate hair salons. In each robbery, a man wearing a hooded sweatshirt and brandishing a tire iron escaped with all the cash in the register, police said. Descriptions of the assailant from all three robberies were virtually identical, said Evesham Detective Bill Kennedy. He said that police did not know why the hair salons were being targeted, but that the department had taken steps to warn the more than 20 salons in the area.

A Camden County jury took a little more than an hour to convict Christopher Kornberger yesterday of hitting a Waterford woman with a tire iron and attempting to rape her. Kornberger, 22, now will be sent to Burlington County, where he could face the death penalty if convicted of killing Krista DeFrancesco, a young mother found stabbed to death outside her Evesham home in 2003. Kornberger was charged with going on a rampage between February and November of that year, killing DeFrancesco and attacking two other women in Burlington County.

A Magnolia man was arrested early yesterday and is a suspect in several gas-station robberies that occurred during the last week in Camden and Burlington Counties. Brian Griffiths, 25, was arrested shortly before 6 a.m. while driving on the White Horse Pike in Oaklyn, minutes after a gas-station attendant in Voorhees was threatened with a tire iron, police said. The robber had fled with an undisclosed amount of cash, they said. Detective Lt. John Prettyman of the Voorhees Police Department said the suspect drove into the Extra gas station at Burnt Mill and Evesham Roads at 5:42 a.m. and, while the unidentified attendant was filling the gas tank, pulled out a tire iron, threatened him, and robbed him. The attendant ran into the gas-station office and called police as the suspect fled in a white car. Minutes later, Griffiths was arrested.

Ex-MOVE defense minister Alfonso Robbins Africa was freed from prison over the weekend after serving every day of a five-year maximum sentence for making terroristic threats to a Philadelphia policeman. Now he can return to the Southwest Philadelphia MOVE house on 56th Street near Chester Avenue, which he owns with his wife. The house appears to be the only remaining MOVE compound in the city, since the infamous Osage Avenue dwelling was destroyed by a police bomb in 1985, killing 11 persons.

The man accused of hiding the tire iron that killed Stephen Crespo on the Fourth of July surrendered to police last evening. John DeHorsey, 21, of Disston Street near Loretto in Lawndale, was charged with conspiracy and hindering an apprehension. DeHorsey gave himself up at the Police Administration Building, 8th and Race streets, about 6 p.m. Police said DeHorsey picked up the tire iron that had been used to strike 15-year-old Crespo on the head during an altercation between two groups of youths in Tacony Park in the Feltonville section.

A Marlton man has been charged with three armed robberies at hair salons and a purse-snatching in a grocery parking lot, all occurring within 48 hours early last week. Stephen Moss, 35, was arrested Saturday night, police said. He was arraigned yesterday in Burlington County Superior Court on four counts of robbery. Each carries a possible 15 years in prison. Police initially sought Moss in the robbery of a woman's purse outside the Shop Rite supermarket on Route 70 last Tuesday night.

John DeHorsey, 23, emerged from his involvement in the highly inflammatory killing of 14-year-old Stephen Crespo in Tacony Park in 1989 with a probationary sentence. But DeHorsey, who had pleaded no defense to accusations that he disposed of the tire iron that killed Crespo, has always dreamed of being a cop. He can't be a cop with a criminal record. So, yesterday, Common Pleas Judge Lisa A. Richette, who had convicted DeHorsey of misdemeanor charges in the Crespo case, reluctantly allowed him to take back his no defense plea.

All charges have been withdrawn against two of the three juveniles accused in an incident in which a cabdriver and his passenger were assaulted in Center City in January, and a third teen has been given probation after pleading guilty to a single count of simple assault. Assistant District Attorney Paul Goldman said Monday that after a "very thorough investigation," it was determined that two of the teens who were charged had not participated in the assault. The third teen hit the passenger with an open hand through the window of the cab after the two exchanged words, he said.

UNIVERSITY of Pennsylvania senior Brian Goldman was in a cab on his way to a date Saturday night when he and his cabbie became victims of a random, violent attack by a group of teens at a Center City intersection - and he says dozens of people stood by and did nothing. In fear for his life, Goldman fled the attack and remained unidentified until yesterday, when he penned a column about his experience in Penn's school newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian. In an interview with the Daily News last night, Goldman, 21, of Queens, N.Y., said that when he wrote the column, he was unaware that the attack had been reported to police, let alone that it had become a news story.

UNIVERSITY of Pennsylvania senior Brian Goldman was in a cab on his way to a date Saturday night when he and his cabbie became victims of a random, violent attack by a group of teens at a Center City intersection - and he says dozens of people stood by and did nothing. In fear for his life, Goldman fled the attack and remained unidentified until Monday, when he penned a column about his experience in Penn's school newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian. In an interview with the Daily News on Monday night, Goldman, 21, of Queens, N.Y., said that when he wrote the column he was unaware that the attack had been reported to police, let alone that it had become a news story.

FOR THOSE WHO are floating on a cloud of self-righteousness after drinking the Michael Vick Second Chance® Kool-Aid, here's a chance to widen your circle of compassion. While the millionaire ex-felon got his "second chance," what about the 48,000 other Philadelphians on parole or probation right now? They're not all unemployed, but enough are. About 80 percent committed misdemeanors, leaving roughly 10,000, mostly male, who are ex-felons, just like Vick. Many need a "second chance," a job - and they'll work for less than $1.6 million.

A 23-year-old Evesham man accused of killing one woman and assaulting two others in a 2003 rampage yesterday pleaded guilty in Superior Court to one of the assaults. Christopher Kornberger surprised prosecutors with his plea, which prompted Judge Thomas Smith Jr. to postpone his trial on the other charges until Tuesday. Smith will decide Monday whether to accept Kornberger's plea. "There was no plea agreement. We didn't anticipate this," said Deputy First Assistant James Ronca, of the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office.

A Camden County jury took a little more than an hour to convict Christopher Kornberger yesterday of hitting a Waterford woman with a tire iron and attempting to rape her. Kornberger, 22, now will be sent to Burlington County, where he could face the death penalty if convicted of killing Krista DeFrancesco, a young mother found stabbed to death outside her Evesham home in 2003. Kornberger was charged with going on a rampage between February and November of that year, killing DeFrancesco and attacking two other women in Burlington County.

IF I'D STAYED in my upper-middle-class suburban neighborhood, I might agree with columnist Jill Porter and those opposed to firearms. If I hadn't experienced someone else's hands on my person, I might say that I never needed to defend myself in this city. Those who cry for gun control were probably never in a position to defend themselves, or someone they love. Ms. Porter should walk in the shoes of those who couldn't fend off the strength of another, where using a gun would be the only means to stay alive.

A $25,000 reward has been posted for information leading to the capture and conviction of the man who stabbed Nancy Clark outside her Evesham home earlier this month. The reward, offered through the Citizens Crime Commission of the Delaware Valley, is much larger than others offered by the organization. That's because it is coming from an individual instead of the group itself, CCC president John C. Apeldorn said. He would not identify the person who will provide the money for the reward.

At least 25 Manayunk car owners woke to the sound of shattering glass early on the morning of June 28, 1999. A tire iron wielded by a couple of youths having a good time did the damage. They were cruising along in a slow-moving car on Fountain Street and Manayunk Avenue, popping out windows of parked cars about 2 a.m., said Assistant District Attorney Brian Kitterer. Cops eventually pulled the car over and arrested the driver, Mark Elenback, 20, formerly of Smick Street near Fountain, and a 17-year-old boy. Last week, Elenback, a construction worker, made a deal to stay out of prison.

When Milton Milan took over as mayor in July 1997, he promised to be a hands-on public servant, one who would hit the streets and get things done. In keeping with that goal, his administration leased a customized, black Chevrolet Suburban similar to the ones used by the Secret Service in presidential motorcades. Milan was fond of charging into Camden neighborhoods in the vehicle, with its tinted windows, police radio and flashing lights, to enforce city codes. With him, usually, were the members of his "code-enforcement team": Herbert Leary, who was the fire chief; Luz Torres, director of development and Planning; and a bodyguard, either Pierre Robinson or Miguel Torres, who was also on the police force as a detective.