Prosecutor: Victim hit with shovel, throat slit

A prosecutor yesterday told a Common Pleas jury that a 21-year-old West Chester University student was killed three years ago in her Germantown home by two men who beat her with a shovel, then sliced her throat with a knife.

Asia Adams was dating one of the men - Thomas "Napoleon" Strode, now 28, of Germantown. Authorities contend he and his friend, Simeon Bozic, now 29, also of Germantown, set Adams on fire after they killed her.

At the start of Bozic's trial yesterday, prosecutor Carlos Vega said in his opening statement that on the night of Nov. 7, 2004, the two men grabbed Adams and threw her into a chair in the basement of her home on Seymour Street near Pulaski Avenue.

Adams then watched Bozic and Strode take a "shovel and whale it across her face," Vega said, moving his arms in a batting motion.

"They take a knife and cut her throat."

In order to kill her, they had to do it more than once, he said. "They had to saw at it from ear to ear to break the skin and the muscle.

"What pain she must have felt when it happened," he said.

During the basement beating, Adams was naked from her waist down, Vega said. He contended they made her take off her panties to humiliate her.

After murdering Adams, the two men took her money and her ATM card and made numerous withdrawals, Vega said.

The next morning, Nov. 8, they returned to her house and carried her body to a second-floor bedroom, threw her on the bed and started a fire, he said.

Daniel Rendine, Bozic's court-appointed defense attorney, told the jury in his opening statement that Bozic had participated in the acts because he "was afraid of Napoleon Strode."

"Strode has his thumb on Bozic just like he had his thumb on these women," Rendine said.

Not only was Strode dating Adams, but he also was dating another girl at the same time and was married, the attorney said.

Rendine told jurors they will hear from Strode's wife, who will testify that Strode "carried a knife and cut her on occasion."

Just before Adams was killed, she found out about Strode's other girlfriend, Rendine said. "Mr. Napoleon Strode had a motive [to kill Adams] because of conflicting love interests," he said. "He has a history of abuse. Simeon Bozic had zero motive."

Prosecutor Vega earlier dismissed the idea that Bozic acted out of fear, saying the two men were best friends.

Bozic had surrendered to police that Nov. 15 after he found out detectives were looking for him. He gave a written statement and a videotaped statement, in which he re-enacted what happened, Vega said.

Police Officers Crystal Carter and David Henry testified that on Nov. 8, they saw smoke coming from Adams' house. They called the Fire Department.

Police Sgt. David Bonk testified that he had entered the house and had seen Adams "laying face down on the bed."

"The bed was burned, she was burned, the room was burned, it was all black," he said.

Officer Robert Flade, of the Crime Scene Unit, testified that when he went to the house on Nov. 16, he lifted a fingerprint from a Nokia cell phone found in the basement. The print later was matched to Bozic's right index finger, he said.

Witness Alexis Bethea-Lopes, Adams' best friend, testified that after she heard that Adams' house was on fire, she and a friend drove there. Several blocks away, she saw Strode and Bozic walking and carrying plastic bags. Both men looked disheveled, she said.

The trial continues today before Judge Peter F. Rogers.

Strode faces the same charges as Bozic, including murder, robbery, arson and conspiracy.

He is to be tried in February. *