Philly man gets life sentence for slaying over $10 debt

Ten dollars he was owed in a drug deal led Dante Green, 22, to fire two bullets into the head of a 21-year-old man in Southwest Philadelphia in February 2016.

Green, now 26, of the city’s Summerdale section, was convicted Wednesday of first-degree murder by a Common Pleas Court jury, then sentenced to life in state prison without parole by Judge Rose Marie DeFino-Nastasi.

The victim, Wilson Yojairo-Diaz, was slain in the city’s Elmwood Park neighborhood. During the trial, the jury heard from several witnesses and saw video evidence linking Green to the early Sunday morning crime that grew out of an argument over $10 Yojairo-Diaz owed him from a drug sale.

The heated words led Green to shoot Yojairo-Diaz in the head, then fire a second time because he was still standing, trial evidence showed.

“This brutal murder occurred one block from where the decedent and his four brothers lived,” District Attorney Larry Krasner said in a statement. “My office extends our condolences to the victim’s loved ones, as well as our hope that they someday experience healing and peace.”

The case was challenging to prosecute due to nighttime video evidence, language barriers, the fact that the two witnesses who placed Green at the scene were affected by crack cocaine, and the absence of another witness who could not be found for trial, Krasner said.

Acting on tips from the public, Philadelphia police arrested Green in Chambersburg, Pa., on March 28, 2016.

Yojairo-Diaz was buried in Ecuador, where his parents lived, the District Attorney’s Office said.

“While this sentence makes it unlikely Dante Green will ever see freedom again, I am hopeful that sooner or later Mr. Green feels real remorse for his actions, that he is able in some way to express genuine regret and offer apology to his victim and co-victims, and that he is able to lift up others’ lives rather than destroy them while incarcerated,” Krasner said.