Black's statement sheds light on Sled's final moments

For more than a year, the chain of events on the night of the October 1996 murder of University biochemist Vladimir Sled had been anything but clear. During recent court proceedings, a more complete story of the night in question finally emerged, but some details remain murky due to conflicting statements and the darkness that still continues to shroud the Halloween night incident. Three people were charged in connection with the murder of the 38-year-old Sled, which occurred around 11:15 p.m near the corner of 44th Street and Larchwood Avenue. Sled was walking home with his fiancZe, 34-year-old Cecilia Hagerhall, at the time of attack. On May 5, a jury acquitted Eugene Harrison, 33, of the murder charge but convicted him of other crimes. He faces 32 1/2 to 65 years in jail. Yvette Stewart, 30, was convicted May 13 of third-degree murder and other charges and faces 47 to 94 years in jail. And last Friday, Bridgette Black, 27, was also convicted of third-degree murder and could be in prison for 20 to 40 years in prison. Black testified during the trials of Harrison and Stewart as a prosecution witness. She was not promised anything in return, although Assistant District Attorney Dick Carroll will tell her sentencing judge that Black cooperated with the prosecution. The following is based on testimony by Black and Hagerhall -- who flew in from Sweden to testify at both trials -- and statements made by all three defendants after their November 1996 arrests. Several inconsistencies are evident in the statements. For instance, Stewart denies having known that Harrison was going to rob anyone, whereas Black said she heard them planning it together. Also, Black and Harrison are both silent as to whether they smoked crack that night, while Stewart admitted they did. But taken together, the testimony and evidence in the matters of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Bridgette Black, Eugene Harrison and Yvette Stewart tell a compelling and frightening story. The day started for Harrison and Stewart at about 10 a.m. with the robbery of a Philadelphia Daily News driver, Arthur Palestini, at 52nd Street and Girard Avenue. Both were convicted of that crime. Stewart waited in their car while Harrison approached Palestini. It did not go according to plan though, because the stocky, 53-year-old driver fought back. Nevertheless, Harrison succeeded in robbing him of $600, money Palestini was carrying because the safe in his truck was broken, he said during Harrison's trial. After hitting Harrison, Palestini chased him down the street, but he jumped into the waiting car. Palestini said he saw Stewart in the driver's seat, though he would fail to identify her in a police lineup three months later. At some point, the duo separated, but they met up again around 10:30 p.m. at the corner of 49th and Reno streets. According to Stewart's statement, Harrison asked her for some crack cocaine. But as she didn't have any, Harrison offered to take her to get some. Harrison's attorney told the jury during his trial that Harrison was a crack addict at the time of Sled's murder. They then drove to Parrish Street and found a dealer. They also found Bridgette Black. According to Stewart's statement, the three of them "smoked a couple bags of cocaine." In her testimony, Black described what happened, beginning from the moment she met up with Harrison and Stewart around 10:30 p.m. at 50th and Parish streets. She was looking for a ride to Center City, where she planned to prostitute herself, she said. Though she didn't know Harrison, she had known Stewart for a year. Once she was in the car -- a stolen, beat-up Buick Skylark with a makeshift roof of thin cloth -- she realized that the two other passengers were planning a robbery. "I'm gonna get mine," she quoted Harrison as saying several times that night. Black, sitting in the back seat, asked Steward to join her in Center City. Stewart agreed, but Black said that she was not dressed for the occasion. "She didn't look like a girl," Black said. They decided that Stewart should change clothes and get fixed up before attempting to solicit men. Harrison, meanwhile, was getting increasingly agitated, Black said in her testimony. He called Black a "bitch" several times. They drove east on Chestnut Street, and made a stop near 38th Street, Black said. Harrison briefly got out of the car at a convenience store. Once he returned, they drove to a dimly lit, residential area on the 4300 block of Larchwood Avenue, parking nearby on 44th Street. Harrison again got out of the car, and this time Black said she urged Stewart to drive away. But before she had a chance, Harrison returned to the car. The trio did a lap around the block, parking again in the same place. The residential area was eerily quiet. Harrison got out of the car for a third and final time, while Black and Stewart waited in the automobile. In his statement, Harrison said he walked towards a white couple carrying some bags. He looked down and pulled his Oakland Athletics baseball cap over his head as Sled and Hagerhall -- who was carrying a purse and a bag containing a teapot -- walked toward him. He grabbed Hagerhall's purse, but the leather strap did not break. "The girl and guy started fighting me," Harrison said. After about 10 minutes, Black said she heard a woman screaming. Stewart drove the car closer so they could see what was going on. From the new parking space, they could see Harrison struggling with Sled a few feet away while Hagerhall stood behind them yelling. Stewart started to get out of the car with a gun, Black said. Ironically, Black said that she got out of the car to prevent Stewart from hurting anyone with the gun. So instead, she ran towards the melee with a small pocketknife in hand. She grabbed Sled from behind to separate him from Harrison and forced Hagerhall out of the way. "I was just waving [the knife] around," in an effort to scare Sled, she said. But since she was behind the Russian-born researcher, he couldn't see the weapon. "I started to poke at him," Black said. "I just wanted to apply enough pressure for him to know he was being poked." Around this time, Black said she heard two gunshots coming from the car, where Stewart was still waiting. Sled fell to the ground at about the same moment. Stewart denies having fired a gun, but area residents also reported hearing gunshots that night. Harrison ran to the car and he and Stewart drove away. Black ran after them, eventually catching up and jumping in the vehicle as it sped off. The trio were unaware that the injuries they had inflicted on Sled were fatal, Black said, though they did see him fall. "There was chaos in the car," Stewart said in her statement. Harrison at one point tried to run her over. Finally, Black left them and ran to her home on the 5100 block of Reno Street. Just a few hours after the murder, Harrison and Stewart were photographed at an automatic teller machine, using Hagerhall's money access and credit cards. The pictures led to their arrests three weeks after the murder. It was not until then that Black said she discovered it was she who had inflicted the mortal injuries to Sled. She had believed Sled died of a gunshot wound, she said during her testimony.

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