Tweet
Cassidy's Murder Trial Opens With Witness Telling Two Different Stories
Cassidy's murder trial began yesterday (January 23) in Philadelphia. The 23-year-old MC is facing a first-degree murder charge.
Sources previously reported, Cassidy (born Barry Reese) surrendered to Philadelphia Police on June 17, 2005 after a warrant was issued for his arrest for the April murder of Desmond Hawkins.
After waiving his right to a trial by jury, Cassidy is now hoping that Common Pleas Judge Judy Greenspan will acquit him of first-degree murder or find him guilty of a less serious charge, for his part in an April shootout that claimed one man's life and left two others injured.
On April 15, the 22-year-old Hawkins was sitting in a van parked in an alley behind Cassidy's home when he was fatally shot in the back. Hawkins and his friends drove to Cassidy's house to settle a fight that had broken out at a Rite-Aid Pharmacy earlier in the day between Hawkins' friend, Roberto Johnson, and one of Cassidy's friends. Gunfire broke out once the van entered the alley.
At the trial witnesses gave different accounts of who fired first, but ballistics evidence found that about 30 shots had been fired at the van and at least 12 shots had been fired from inside the van.
According to reports, testimony from Johnson claimed that he had been urinating in a nearby yard when the shots rang out.
"As I'm urinating, they drive past," he said of his friends. "I get myself together, shake myself off... and I started hearing the gunshots. When I heard the gunshots, I ducked behind a car."
During Johnson's cross-examination, Cassidy's defense attorney Fortunato Perri got the witness to admit he had really gone to the rapper's home to retaliate after being beaten up at the drugstore, not for a truce, as he had claimed.
When Perri questioned whether Johnson would shoot another man if he had to Johnson responded, "If my life was threatened, and only if my life was threatened." Johnson had already testified that while being beaten up outside the Rite-Aid, one of Reese's friends had threatened to "bang" him.
During questioning Perri introduced the idea that the first shot may have come from Johnson, who was outside the van at the time of the shooting. Johnson said that he came to the meeting without a weapon and that he had seen only one gun in his friends' van. He claimed that he picked it up after the shooting, put it in his own car and later sold it.
Prosecutor Deborah Watson-Stokes argued that Cassidy had planned the ambush on Johnson and friends by placing four men in strategic positions to attack the alley. She says the set-up proves premeditated murder.
A witness for the prosecution, Joseph Newkirk, had initially told police he saw Cassidy fire a gun that night, but while on the witness stand he recanted his original version of events, saying that he lied to the police because they intimidated him.
On August 16, 2005, Municipal Judge Marsha Neifeld ruled that prosecutors had sufficient evidence to charge Reese with third-degree murder, attempted murder and weapons offenses. This was later overturned to the original, first degree charge, ruling out the possibility of parole.
Trial testimony is expected to end today.
Source: sohh.com
Sources previously reported, Cassidy (born Barry Reese) surrendered to Philadelphia Police on June 17, 2005 after a warrant was issued for his arrest for the April murder of Desmond Hawkins.
After waiving his right to a trial by jury, Cassidy is now hoping that Common Pleas Judge Judy Greenspan will acquit him of first-degree murder or find him guilty of a less serious charge, for his part in an April shootout that claimed one man's life and left two others injured.
On April 15, the 22-year-old Hawkins was sitting in a van parked in an alley behind Cassidy's home when he was fatally shot in the back. Hawkins and his friends drove to Cassidy's house to settle a fight that had broken out at a Rite-Aid Pharmacy earlier in the day between Hawkins' friend, Roberto Johnson, and one of Cassidy's friends. Gunfire broke out once the van entered the alley.
At the trial witnesses gave different accounts of who fired first, but ballistics evidence found that about 30 shots had been fired at the van and at least 12 shots had been fired from inside the van.
According to reports, testimony from Johnson claimed that he had been urinating in a nearby yard when the shots rang out.
"As I'm urinating, they drive past," he said of his friends. "I get myself together, shake myself off... and I started hearing the gunshots. When I heard the gunshots, I ducked behind a car."
During Johnson's cross-examination, Cassidy's defense attorney Fortunato Perri got the witness to admit he had really gone to the rapper's home to retaliate after being beaten up at the drugstore, not for a truce, as he had claimed.
When Perri questioned whether Johnson would shoot another man if he had to Johnson responded, "If my life was threatened, and only if my life was threatened." Johnson had already testified that while being beaten up outside the Rite-Aid, one of Reese's friends had threatened to "bang" him.
During questioning Perri introduced the idea that the first shot may have come from Johnson, who was outside the van at the time of the shooting. Johnson said that he came to the meeting without a weapon and that he had seen only one gun in his friends' van. He claimed that he picked it up after the shooting, put it in his own car and later sold it.
Prosecutor Deborah Watson-Stokes argued that Cassidy had planned the ambush on Johnson and friends by placing four men in strategic positions to attack the alley. She says the set-up proves premeditated murder.
A witness for the prosecution, Joseph Newkirk, had initially told police he saw Cassidy fire a gun that night, but while on the witness stand he recanted his original version of events, saying that he lied to the police because they intimidated him.
On August 16, 2005, Municipal Judge Marsha Neifeld ruled that prosecutors had sufficient evidence to charge Reese with third-degree murder, attempted murder and weapons offenses. This was later overturned to the original, first degree charge, ruling out the possibility of parole.
Trial testimony is expected to end today.
Source: sohh.com