Stewart jailed in Sled case

Yvette Stewart was given 15-20 years for her role in the biochemist's killing. Yvette Stewart, one of three people convicted on charges related to the 1996 murder of University biochemist Vladimir Sled, was sentenced on Monday to 15 to 30 years in prison for her role in the incident. Stewart, 31, cupped her hands over her mouth and swayed back and forth as Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge James Lineberger read her the sentence. The judge told her sister to leave the courtroom after she cried out, "Oh no." Stewart has been in jail since her November 1996 arrest. The sentencing for another defendant, Eugene "Sultan" Harrison, 34, was delayed until next Monday because of confusion over the legal degree of the robbery charges he was convicted of in May. The charges also included the robbery of a Philadelphia Daily News driver by Stewart and Harrison, which took place several hours before the murder. Stewart has 10 days from Monday to request the judge to reconsider and 30 days to appeal the sentence to a higher court. Harrison, Stewart and a third defendant, 27-year-old Bridgette Black, were all convicted earlier this year of various charges stemming from Sled's stabbing death on the night of October 31, 1996, on the 4300 block of Larchwood Avenue. Harrison was trying to take Sled's fiancee's purse, but the 38-year-old Russian-born researcher fought him to the ground. Black emerged from the getaway car and stabbed Sled, though she has said she did not mean to hurt him. Stewart remained in the getaway car and allegedly fired a gun into the air. On May 13, Stewart was convicted of third-degree murder, two counts of robbery and several related charges. Harrison, though, was acquitted a week earlier by a different jury of the murder charge and found guilty of robbery and conspiracy. Black, who testified against Harrison and Stewart during their trials, pled guilty to a general charge of murder and was sentenced in July to five to 12 years in prison. In an interview following the hearing, Assistant District Attorney Mark Gilson said that while Stewart's sentence was "fair under the circumstances" it was "truly outrageous" that the three defendants were tried separately and not all convicted of second-degree murder -- which, given the set of facts, state statutes mandate. "I can't walk out of here and say justice was done," said the prosecutor, who took over the case in July after prosecutor Dick Carroll went into private practice. "They deserve to spend the rest of their lives in prison." Stewart's attorney, Lee Mandell, was unavailable for comment after the hearing and did not respond to a telephone call yesterday. During the sentencing hearing, Lineberger read from Stewart's mental evaluation and pre-sentencing report. Before the Sled incident, Stewart had already spent six years in a state penitentiary for drug dealing, had a $200-a-day crack habit at the time of the murder and had a history of mental illness. She tried to kill herself while in prison, Lineberger said. Mandell called Stewart's mother and sister to testify on her behalf. Her aunt, grandmother and 14-month-old daughter were also in attendance. Frankie Stewart, Yvette's mother, said that her daughter is "really truly sorry. She's a better person now. My daughter's changed." But Lineberger didn't seem to sympathize and asked Frankie Stewart what she expected of him under the circumstances. "Here's an individual [Sled] who left Moscow to come to the home of the free and the land of the brave. What am I supposed to do?" Lineberger asked. Yvette Stewart also spoke, expressing remorse and asking for a chance to be with her infant daughter, who was born while Stewart was in prison. Stewart said she underwent drug rehabilitation while in prison and is now free of her addictions. She has also taken several vocational training courses. "I'm just trying to be the best that I can. I just want to be a mother to my daughter," she said, her voice cracking. Mandell brought up Black's relatively light sentence, pointing out that it was she who actually stabbed Sled, while his client waited in the getaway car. But Gilson emphasized the differences between them, saying that Black gave a full confession immediately following her arrest, had cooperated with the prosecution without any promise of leniency and was not involved in the robbery earlier that same day of a Daily News driver, of which both Harrison and Stewart were convicted. Also entered into evidence were victim impact statements from Sled's ex-wife, with whom he has a teenaged son, and his fiancee at the time of his murder, Swedish-born former University researcher Cecilia Hagerhall. "I miss him tremendously and I find it impossible to stop loving somebody simply because they are dead," Hagerhall's statement said. "Thus my remaining life seems to be childless and lonely." Gilson told the judge that given her prior record and seeming lack of remorse until now, Stewart should not be shown any leniency. When Mandell pointed out that Stewart's prior convictions were mainly drug arrests and shoplifting charges, the judge shot back, "That's no comfort to the victim," and then went on to pass his sentence. After reading his sentence, Lineberger told Stewart she was "lucky" that the jury showed leniency by not convicting her of second-degree murder, which carries a mandatory life sentence. When it came time for Harrison's sentencing, his attorney, Tariq El-Shabazz, claimed that he and Carroll, the former prosecutor, had agreed that the robbery convictions were third-degree, which means a low level of force and carries a maximum of seven years in prison for each charge. But Gilson disputed that, saying that while the robbery of the Daily News driver was probably third-degree, the Sled robbery should be first-degree, which carries a maximum 10-year sentence. Carroll could not be immediately reached for comment.