Life sentence in armed guards' 2007 slaying

Mustafa Ali, found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder a week ago in what the prosecutor called the 2007 "execution" of two Loomis armored-van guards, was spared the death penalty last night by a Philadelphia jury.

The seven women and five men deliberated just over three hours in Common Pleas Court before returning the verdict to a packed courtroom at 6:42 p.m. and sentencing the former Drexel University engineering student to life in prison without a chance of parole.

Ali, 39, maintained the enigmatic composure he had throughout the trial, showing no reaction to the verdict, though he heaved a sigh as the jury was dismissed.

Ali's only comment when Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart asked if he had anything to say before beginning the formal sentencing: "No, sir."

Although the verdict and sentence mean Ali will spend his life in prison with no chance of parole, Minehart made the two life sentences consecutive and told Ali that he had committed a "heartless, heartless act . . . motivated primarily by laziness and greed."

Minehart told Ali that he had destroyed the slain guards' families. "And you did a pretty good job destroying your own," he said.

But his words and consecutive life sentences had little resonance for the families of slain guards William Widmaier, 65, of Fairless Hills, and Joseph Alullo, 54, of Levittown.

Both families erupted in tears and anger.

Joyce Widmaier, who was sobbing heavily in court even before the verdict was announced, moved into the hallway with her son, William Jr., and raged at the jury's decision.

"He'll wake up every morning in prison, and my husband is in the ground!" Widmaier cried. "I can't believe it. I just can't believe it. I don't ever want to be in this building again. I just want to go home."

She walked down the hallway, weeping and supported by her son.

Alullo's widow, Donna, said she was "very disappointed with the verdict, but it could have been only one juror."

Alullo praised Assistant District Attorney Michael Barry: "He did everything he could, but the jury decided, and there's nothing else we can do. It's all been said and done."

Alullo also decried the defense strategy of demonizing Ali's mother, Mary Ann Steele Davis.

Davis, according to the defense, abandoned Ali - then known as Shawn Steele - before he turned 2. And after mother and son were reunited, Davis was a cold, unloving mother, the defense said.

"I feel really bad about the way they talked about her," Alullo said. "She's still a mother, and she did the best she could."

Ali's family - including his mother and his estranged wife, Lacole Ali, and their two young sons - were ushered out of court immediately after the verdict was announced.

Marc A. Bookman and Karl D. Schwartz, two of Ali's three public defenders, declined to comment.

The jury began the day with impassioned closing arguments from Barry and Bookman.

Barry argued strongly for a death sentence. He cited four legal factors he said justified a death sentence: the double murders, their commission during a robbery, Ali's endangering of civilians during the shoot-out outside a busy Northeast intersection, and his conviction in federal court of five bank robberies in 1992.

He urged the jury to discount defense testimony about Ali's early childhood deprivation and abandonment and a poignant video of Ali talking with sons Naqi, 9, and Taqi, 6, by telephone from the city's Curran-Fromhold Correction Facility.

Barry added that Ali also had loved his sons during the Oct. 4, 2007, shoot-out that devastated the Alullo and Widmaier families: "Give his kids as much thought as he gave his kids that day - practically none."

Bookman told the jury that it was impossible to excuse the two murders because of Ali's childhood.

"There's no explanation, no logic, no reason. It's impossible for me to do that," Bookman said.

Nevertheless, he urged the jury consider the whole man: "He's not a monster. You have to see the humanity there."

In the end, that video may have made the difference for the jury, which told the court in its verdict that it found that the aggravating factors did not outweigh Ali's life story and background.

The trial began Feb. 1 and ended Feb. 17 with two guilty verdicts of first-degree murder. The jury began hearing evidence in the trial's penalty phase Friday.

The jury found that Ali had purposely shot and killed the guards as they serviced an outdoor ATM at the Wachovia Bank at Bustleton and Bleigh Avenues at the Roosevelt Mall.

The slain guards were retired city police officers. The Loomis driver, Joseph Walczak, 72, of Frankford, was injured by flying glass when a shot shattered the van's bulletproof window.

Barry said afterward that he was disappointed the jury had not agreed that the death penalty was warranted and that he still believed Ali had robbed the Loomis van intending to murder the guards so he could escape.

"I know the families are very upset," Barry added. "I hope they can take some comfort that he'll spend the rest of his life in prison."