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and Harrison Denman The trial of a West Philadelphia man accused of shooting a College senior in the abdomen on the 4200 block of Pine Street began yesterday with opening arguments from the prosecution and defense. Using the victim's identification of the defendant as its prime piece of evidence, Dino Privitera -- the assistant district attorney prosecuting the case -- said he intends to prove that Keith Schofield, the alleged shooter, is guilty of attempted murder, aggravated assault, attempted robbery of a motor vehicle and other lesser charges. "This is about senseless violence and ugly greed on the streets of Philadelphia," Privitera said. The prosecution will begin presenting testimony to the jury tomorrow. In his opening statement, defense attorney Joseph Levin countered that the victim, James McCormack, is "making an honest mistake" in implicating Schofield. "Identification is an opinion, an allegation," he said. Levin pointed out that McCormack said the attacker weighed about 175 pounds and was in his mid-twenties, while Schofield is 34 and weighs 135 pounds. Levin believes that when police brought the photo spread before McCormack on November 19 in his room at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, the victim's identification of Schofield was influenced by the morphine he was taking as a pain-killer at the time. On Monday, Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Kathryn Lewis ruled against a defense motion to exclude the photo spread and line-up evidence. She added that McCormack was not unduly influenced by the police while identifying the victim. Both lawyers agreed to exclude Schofield's statement to detectives and to a lie detector test during preliminary hearings. Also an issue during opening statements was the prosecution's claim that a jacket found in Schofield's residence matches the one McCormack saw on the assailant. The defense believes that Schofield's jacket is not the one worn by the assailant. Both the prosecution and defense attorneys declined to comment on the ongoing case. However, Schofield's friends believe that he is innocent. "There is no evidence. There is no gun," said Damaris Jones, Schofield's live-in girlfriend. "They got [McCormack] brainwashed." "We have a life," added Jones, who said she has known Schofield since the first grade. "It's killing me, and it's killing him. He don't sleep, and he don't eat [anymore]." Ted Payne, a long-time neighbor and father figure to Schofield, who has known the defendant for over 20 years, echoed Jones' comments. "He was just an average teenager," he said. At the end of October, Privitera successfully prosecuted Larry Ray for the bloody Penn Tower robbery and assault of Toby Laiken, a University of Pennsylvania Health System secretary. Schofield's trial is being conducted in room 1008 of the Criminal Justice Center, located at 13th and Filbert streets across from City Hall. The use of a gun in the attack means that any conviction would require a minimum five year sentence, according to Assistant District Attorney Bill Davol.

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