Killer of witness and friend gets death sentence

He began the trial by pleading guilty to two counts of first-degree murder in the 2008 shootings of a childhood friend and a woman he did not know.

He then sat silently through two weeks of testimony on whether he deserved death by lethal injection or life in prison without parole.

On Wednesday, minutes after a Philadelphia jury of nine women and three men had twice sentenced him to death, Laquaille Bryant spoke up - to apologize.

"Miss Daisy, Miss Renee, the Green family," Bryant called out to the grandmother and mother of Chante Wright and the parents of Octavia Green. "I'm really, really, really, really sorry. Real sorry."

Green's father, Michael T. Green, glared at Bryant and shook his head.

Then, as deputies led him away, Bryant turned and tried once more: "I'm sorry!"

The jury worked about five hours Tuesday and Wednesday before finding that Bryant, 28, of South Philadelphia, had been paid to kill 23-year-old Wright, a federally protected witness, to stop her from testifying in the murder trial of South Philadelphia drug lord Hakeem Bey.

Green, also 23, was sitting in the passenger seat of Wright's rental car on Jan. 19, 2008, when Wright picked up Bryant. He shot both from the rear seat as they traveled on Patton Street near Tasker Street in South Philadelphia.

In formally sentencing Bryant, Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart called the killings "heartless and cowardly acts, to shoot two people from behind."

Under Pennsylvania law, Bryant's sentence will be automatically reviewed by the state Supreme Court. During that time, he will be housed at the state prison at Greene, in southwestern Pennsylvania. He will spend 23 hours a day in a cell, with one hour of exercise in a caged yard.

Bryant becomes the 221st person on Pennsylvania's "death row," the fourth-largest population of condemned inmates among the 35 states with capital punishment.

Only three men have been executed in Pennsylvania since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The last was Gary R. Heidnick, 55, of Philadelphia, who suspended his appeals and was put to death in 1999 for the sexual assault, torture, and murder of two women.

None of Bryant's family attended the trial or the sentencing. But the victims' relatives were there, lauding the double death penalty.

"Finally, justice is served," said Green's mother, Kathleen Webb, who is raising her own daughter's son, 6, and daughter, 4. "I'm just glad I can go home and tell her children, 'They got him.' "

Green's father said, "I looked at him to see if he had any expression, any remorse, and he stood there and tried to look stupid." He was referring to a defense claim that Bryant has brain damage and "borderline" mental retardation.

The jury found that Bryant's traumatic early childhood - born to a 14-year-old with mental illness and drug addictions, reared in a home where drug use was the norm - affected his mental ability.

But the jurors decided that those factors mitigating life in prison did not outweigh "aggravating factors": a double murder, a murder for hire, and witness retaliation.

Wright's grandmother Daisy Pough began to weep after the sentencing as she spoke of her feelings of betrayal.

"He was raised up with us," she said of Bryant. "He knew her, he knew me. He ate meals with us. He calls her his 'little sister,' and then he killed her."

Assistant District Attorney Carlos Vega knew Wright, persuaded her to testify against Bey, and was instrumental in getting her into the witness-protection program. Bryant deserved death, he said. "You cannot have a justice system and let somebody get away with killing witnesses."

Wednesday's jury decision closes a case that began in 2000 when Wright, then 17, was in the rear seat of a car and saw Bey shoot and kill Moses Williams, 23, purportedly a member of a rival street gang. Williams had insulted Bey's brother, prosecutors said.

Wright identified Bey as the shooter but recanted after receiving threats. She decided to testify after being placed in witness protection and relocated to Florida.

Several months before Bey's trial, Wright's great-grandmother became terminally ill. In violation of witness-protection rules, Wright returned to Philadelphia for a final visit.

On Jan. 18, 2008, Wright called Green and Bryant to go out together after she saw her great-grandmother. Seven hours after she arrived, Wright and Green were dead.

Bey is serving life for the Williams murder. He has not been charged in the slayings of Wright and Green.