Testimony Opens In Trial Of Man Accused Of Gunning Down Teaching Student For His iPod
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A North Philadelphia man, already serving a life prison sentence, is on trial for a previous murder, allegedly the 2008 shooting of an aspiring teacher who was new to the city.
A woman who once lived at 828 Ellsworth Street in South Philadelphia testified when she heard a loud boom in the early morning hours of June 15th, 2008, she thought it was a nearby blown transformer. It had been giving the neighborhood problems, but when she looked out the window she observed a man lying on the sidewalk.
Toni Nelson testified while on the phone with 9-1-1, she then saw a man hunched over the victim. Her daughter Sherne testified the man had pulled up his collar to his eyebrows while looking over the man not moving on the sidewalk.
Prosecutors say 23-year-old Beau Zabel, a teaching student from Minnesota who lived in Philadelphia just six weeks, was killed for his iPod.
Marcellus Jones' lawyer says no one ID'd the shooter and no evidence linked the 37-year old defendant to the Zabel murder.