Teens guilty in subway murder trial

A jury has found three North Philadelphia teenagers guilty of last year's beating and death of a Starbucks manager on a Center City subway concourse.

The jury got the case late yesterday afternoon after closing arguments from the prosecution and the defense lawyers for Kinta Stanton, 17; Ameer Best, 18; and Nashir Fisher, 17.

Late this afternoon, the jury found Fisher and Best guilty of third-degree murder and conspiracy. Stanton was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy.

Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart set sentencing for Oct. 29 and ordered Best and Fisher taken into custody immediately. Stanton is already in custody.

All three face a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison. Fisher and Best face a maximum of 40 to 80 years, and Stanton could get as much as 22 1/2 to 45 years.

All three defense attorneys attacked the prosecution's key witness, Raheem Bell, 17, one of five originally charged in the death of Sean Patrick Conroy. Bell pleaded guilty this year as did another defendant, Arthur Alston, 18.

Best's attorney, Richard Brown, maintained that if the jury believes his client struck Conroy, Best is guilty at most of involuntary manslaughter, because there was no evidence of malice or intent to kill.

Brown said no one knew that Conroy, who died of an acute stress-induced asthma attack, had the condition until after the autopsy.

Conroy, 36, of South Philadelphia, was jumped and beaten as he walked along the concourse at the 13th Street station of the Market-Frankford Line at 2:30 p.m. on March 26, 2008.

Assistant District Attorney Jacqueline Juliano Coelho dismissed the defense arguments, saying the evidence clearly showed that the group decided on a dare to hit the first person seen walking in the concourse.

That Conroy might have had undiagnosed asthma was irrelevant, Coelho added.

"You take your victim as you find him," Coelho told the jury. "What's the argument here, that he wasn't healthy enough to take my beating?"