Traffic Light

Blood was splattered over the walls, and splashes of crimson covered the carpet and furniture when a housekeeper found Richard Porter's body inside his Upper Merion Township home in March. Yesterday, a drug-addicted neighbor and family friend, James Nicolai, 25, pleaded guilty in the case to second-degree murder, burglary, robbery and related offenses, the Montgomery District Attorney's Office announced. "We're very pleased, very satisfied with the result," said Deputy District Attorney Thomas W. McGoldrick.

The first on-air hires have been made at Tango Traffic, the 24/7 service that starts Jan. 1 on WPHL's digital channel, as well as the Web and mobile platforms. Kristen Celins , who has done traffic on NBC10, and Jason Lee , a radio DJ, have landed morning drive, while CBS3 and QVC alumna Stephanie Humphrey and former Eagles cheerleader/CW Philly host Vittoria Woodill are on afternoon. Show must go on Saturday's matinee audience at Jersey Boys , the hit musical playing at the Forrest, noted a stoppage between scenes and then saw the flurry of EMS activity after cast member Buck Hujabre suffered what was described as a minor injury.

CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE - The Garden State Parkway's infamous Cape May County traffic lights, the scourge of Shore-bound drivers for generations, are headed toward their final summers. Work will begin in late 2011 to remove the signals, the only ones on the 173-mile toll road, according to a spokesman for the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, which operates the parkway. The lights at Exits 9, 10, and 11 existed at intersections in the Cape May Court House section of Middle Township before the parkway's debut in 1955.

A 47-year-old woman from Newtown Square was killed Sunday in an accident involving a minivan and an SUV in Marple Township, police said. The woman, who drove the SUV, was pronounced dead on the scene about 5 p.m., police said. Her female passenger was flown to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia with injuries that were not life-threatening. The accident happened on South Sproul Road near the Marple Township police station, said a Delaware County dispatcher. The identities of the driver and passenger were not released Sunday.

The hunt continued yesterday for escaped murder suspect Omar Roane. As of late last night, police said, Roane was still on the run. The career criminal, who is accused of killing a 17-year-old youth, last spring, was among three cons who busted out of a police transport van on Saturday at a traffic light at Frankford and Cottman avenues in Northeast Philadelphia. Roane, 22, was being taken to Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility. At some point during the trip, he apparently noticed something was amiss with a bolt on a cage door inside the van, said police spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore.

A 24-year-old man died early Sunday of several gunshot wounds after Philadelphia police found him and two other wounded men in a gold-colored Chevrolet Tahoe. Police said it is believed another vehicle pulled up to the Tahoe while it was stopped at a traffic light in the 200 block of West Lehigh Avenue. After a heated exchange of words, shots were fired, investigators said. Police were called to the scene at 1:41 a.m. The 24-year-old was in the backseat of the Tahoe. He pronounced dead at 2:04 a.m. at Episcopal Hospital.

A 24-year-old man died early Sunday after police found him shot multiple times in a Chevrolet Tahoe. Police said it is believe another vehicle pulled up to the gold Tahoe while it was stopped at a traffic light on near the 200-block of W. Leigh Avenue. After a heated exchange, shots were fired. Police were called to the scene at 1:41 a.m. The 24-year-old, who was found in the backseat of the Tahoe, was pronounced dead at 2:04 a.m. at Episcopal Hospital. A 23-year-old man also in the Tahoe was taken to Temple University hospital where he was in stable condition with a gunshot wound to his right hand.

Richard Porter had shown plenty of mercy to a neighbor and family friend with a drug problem who had broken into Porter's Upper Merion Township home several times in 2007. But the neighbor, James Nicolai, showed none for Porter on Friday, when Nicolai again broke into his home. Porter, returning from an MRI in Norristown about 10 a.m., walked in on the 24-year-old, who was "looking for money," and confronted him, according to an affidavit of probable cause. Nicolai "got scared" and stabbed Porter "all over the place," according to the document, and fled with Porter's jewelry, cell phone, cash and Chevy Tahoe.

Police in Bucks County expect to take several weeks to complete an investigation into the cause of an accident in which a 15-year-old youth was struck by an SUV driven by a middle-school principal. Ricardo Smith, a sophomore at Pennridge High School, remained in critical condition yesterday at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest, hospital officials said. The youth had been walking to school Monday when he was struck at Fifth Street and Campus Drive, across from the school grounds in East Rockhill Township, at 6:48 a.m. The impact, which left Smith with severe head injuries, cracked the SUV's front bumper and windshield, said Chief David Mettin of the Pennridge Regional Police Department.

TO COLUMNIST Stu Bykofsky - I ride a bike, although I'd never ride in the city. Do you want to see something really dumb? Check out the pedestrian crosswalk the city has constructed, at huge expense, I assume, that is at the beginning of Martin Luther King Drive by the Art Museum. An area that is already impossible to navigate at rush hour has been further screwed up by the removal of an entire lane, the placement of numerous signs and, to top it all off, a traffic light so that occasional pedestrians and bike riders can cross this already incredibly congested area of the road.