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Victims' relatives testify in double slayingFeb 19, 2010 (The Philadelphia Inquirer - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- William Widmaier Jr., now 43, said his life changed irrevocably on Oct. 4, 2007. It was a warm autumn morning when his mother called to say: "An armored car's been held up, and Dad's not answering his cell phone." A short time later, Widmaier said, he arrived at the Wachovia Bank branch at Bustleton and Bleigh Avenues in Northeast Philadelphia and learned why. As police canvassed the drive-through lanes and parking lot, Widmaier said, he spotted "the white sheet covering his lifeless body." "Every day I think of Dad, and every day I wonder why this happened," Widmaier told a Philadelphia jury today in the opening of the death-penalty phase of Mustafa Ali's murder trial. On Wednesday, the Common Pleas Court jury found Ali, 39, guilty of two counts of first-degree murder in the killings of two Loomis armored van guards -- Widmaier's 65-year-old father and namesake, and Joseph Alullo, 54 -- as they serviced an outdoor ATM at the bank at Roosevelt Mall. Today, the jury also heard victim-impact letters written by Widmaier's sister, Wednesday, 40, and their mother, Joyce, of Levittown, who were too upset to speak. "How am I living without my husband of 45 years? The answer is, I'm not, I'm just going through the motions," Joyce Widmaier wrote. Alullo's oldest daughter, Katie, 25, also testified, reading a statement composed with sisters Gina and Lisa that referred to college graduations, weddings, and grandchildren their father would never see. "We feel robbed and cheated for no reason," Alullo testified. Alullo's widow, Donna, told of the emotional pain of losing her husband of 31 years, the financial hardships, and a bittersweet conversation in their Fairless Hills backyard the night before his death: "He told me he was going to start looking for another job." The victim-impact testimony, accompanied by a chorus of quiet crying in the audience, ended Assistant District Attorney Michael Barry's case for the jury to sentence Ali to death by lethal injection. On Monday, Ali's three-member team of public defenders will begin trying to persuade the jury to sentence Ali to the only alternative -- life in prison without parole. Barry outlined four "aggravating factors" he said justified a death sentence: killing during the commission of another felony, in this case an armed robbery; causing great risk to pedestrians and others near the shooting scene; a significant history of violent crime; and a previous conviction that carried a possible life sentence. The last two factors were documented by FBI Agent Raymond J. Carr, who testified about the arrests of Ali -- then known as Shawn Steele -- his older brother Anthony Steele and Troy Nesbitt in five Philadelphia bank robberies in 1992. Ali pleaded guilty and cooperated with authorities, Carr said. Court records show he was sentenced to seven years in a federal prison in 1993 and was released on five years of probation in January 1999. Citing Ali's record and the two killings, Barry called him "the worst of the worst. I don't mean to disparage his humanity, but we know that what people do in their life stays with them." Defense attorney Karl D. Schwartz told the jury that "mitigating factors" warranted a life sentence. Schwartz said witnesses would tell of Ali's early life in Milledgeville, Ga., abandoned by his mother and father by age 2, and then shuttled among various caretakers. Schwartz said the upbringing left Ali outwardly emotionless and withdrawn. He said witnesses would also testify about Ali's life after federal prison, of two young sons he loves, and of an intelligent man who worked two jobs, including at his own janitorial service. "None of us would want to be judged by the worst thing we ever did in our lives," Schwartz told the jury in his opening statement. "There's more to Mr. Ali." Contact staff writer Joseph A. Slobodzian at 215-854-2985 or [email protected]. To see more of The Philadelphia Inquirer, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.philly.com/inquirer. Copyright (c) 2010, The Philadelphia Inquirer Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |