Sled hearing postponed

Earlier this year, Bridgette Black, 27, admitted to stabbing Sled at the corner of 43rd Street and Larchwood Avenue as Eugene "Sultan" Harrison attempted to rob Sled and his fiancee, then-University researcher Cecilia Hagerhall. Black confessed to murder "in general" earlier this year, leaving Common Pleas Judge Carolyn Temin to decide the degree of her guilt. The degree-of-guilt hearing was scheduled for Tuesday, but was postponed until today due to the attorneys' conflicting schedules. Assistant District Attorney Dick Carroll and the two public defenders in the case -- Fred Goodman and Dean Owens -- were arguing other cases through Tuesday afternoon. Harrison and Yvette Stewart -- who drove the getaway car -- were tried separately from Black because they were also involved in a robbery of a Philadelphia Daily News driver earlier the day of the murder. While both were convicted on the robbery charges, Harrison was found innocent of murdering Sled. Stewart was convicted of third-degree murder in connection with the Sled incident. Carroll said that Black deserves a second-degree murder conviction based on a "very highly technical reading of the law." That degree of murder carries with it a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The hearing is scheduled for 2 p.m. today in room 604 of the Criminal Justice Center at 13th and Filbert Streets. -- Edward Sherwin