No verdict in Palestra trial

The jury in the Palestra shooting trial failed to reach a verdict Friday and will continue its deliberations today. The three men and nine women deliberated all day Friday, as they tried to decide whether Kyle McLemore and Nathaniel Ortiz, both 21, are guilty of killing North Philadelphia resident Anthony Davis outside the Palestra following a high school basketball game there last March. Three other people, including a Penn student, were injured in the shooting. Before being dismissed for lunch, the jury submitted several questions to Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge John Poserina. In addition to requesting that several legal terms be redefined, they asked if Jeffrey Noble -- one of the three wounded -- and Oscar Tucker, both witnesses for the prosecution, actually identified the two defendants as having guns at the time of the shooting. Poserina told them that "it is their responsibility" to make that determination. In their testimony, Noble and Tucker indicated that the defendants did have guns at the time of the shooting on 33rd Street between Walnut and Chestnut streets. Toward the end of the day, there was an altercation outside the courtroom between friends of the defendants and of Davis. No one was arrested and the fight was much less severe than the brawl that erupted after the trial's first day. To head off another melee, police told onlookers that only immediate family members could return today to hear a possible verdict. McLemore and Ortiz could receive the death penalty if found guilty of murder and three counts of aggravated assault, according to Assistant District Attorney Jude Conroy. Fortunato Perri, Ortiz' attorney, and Charles Peruto, McLemore's attorney, maintain the innocence of their clients. The jury will continue deliberations today in room 1002 of the Criminal Justice Center on 13th and Filbert streets and may reach a verdict as early as this morning.

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