Alimohamed suspects take plea bargain

and Brett Levinson Two suspects charged in last year's murder of fifth-year graduate student Al-Moez Alimohamed pleaded guilty last week in exchange for a promise that prosecutors will not recommend the death penalty, according to Director of Victim Support and Special Services Maureen Rush. Had they been convicted instead of agreeing to the plea bargain, Assistant District Attorney Roger King would have requested that the defendants be sentenced to death, Rush said. In an eleventh-hour plea bargain Friday, Ollie Taylor, 17, admitted he was one of five men who beat and robbed Alimohamed near 47th and Spruce streets last August, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. Murder suspect Antoine Saunders, 19, also pleaded guilty Thursday to first-degree murder. Prosecutors recommended a life sentence without parole. In return for the plea bargain, Taylor and Saunders promised to cooperate with the prosecution, and will possibly have to testify in court against the other two defendants, according to Mathematics Graduate Chairperson Wolfgang Ziller. Another suspect, Gregory Pennington, 18, is still attempting to return his case to juvenile court, on the grounds that he was 16 at the time of the murder, Rush said. Taylor said in a courtroom deposition that after the five men beat Alimohamed, three returned to the scene of the crime, fearing the victim could identify them for police, the Inquirer reported. After one of Taylor's friends shouted, "Bang him," Taylor, who has earned the nickname "Homicide" from his friends, shot Alimohamed in the chest with a sawed-off shotgun, according to the article. King has recommended life imprisonment without parole for Taylor in exchange for his testimony, Rush said. Taylor will also serve time for a robbery charge, criminal conspiracy, theft by unlawful taking and possession of an instrument of crime, Rush said. According to former Mathematics Graduate Chairperson Ted Chinburg, Alimohamed would not have wanted the death penalty for any of the defendants. Chinburg added that he is impressed with how King is handling the prosecution. And he said he believes King had good reasons for considering the plea bargains in order to bring the defendants to justice. But if prosecutors are not satisfied with Taylor's and Saunders's cooperation, they will have the option to try the two for the death penalty, Chinburg said. In addition, King has made arguments against trying Pennington as a juvenile, according to the Inquirer. If Pennington is tried as a juvenile there could be two more trials, one in juvenile court and on in adult court, Ziller said. Common Pleas Judge Carolyn Temin will hear arguments concerning Pennington's decertification, a process in which an adult offender is legally classified as juvenile, beginning at 11 a.m. today. Jury selection could possibly start today in the trial of the other defendants with Common Pleas Judge James Fitzgerald presiding, Ziller said. The jury trial is slated to begin sometime later this week. A bus will leave from David Rittenhouse Laboratories every day at 9 a.m. once the trial commences. A fifth defendant, Khaalis Edmonson, 18, was earlier tried as a juvenile and sentenced to three years in a maximum security juvenile court by Common Pleas Judge Sheldon Jelin.