Two men behind a Norristown gunfight that killed a man in his home last Thanksgiving pleaded guilty to murder

Two men who waged a gun battle on a residential street in Norristown last year, killing a man with a stray bullet as he was eating Thanksgiving dinner with his family, pleaded guilty to murder Monday afternoon.

Kevon Clarke and Savian Creary, both 20, were on opposite sides of the gunfight that claimed the life of Edilberto Miguel Pelaez Moctezuma last November, according to prosecutors. But both admitted their roles before Montgomery County Court Judge William Carpenter, sparing them a criminal trial that was scheduled to begin Tuesday.

Prosecutors, led by Assistant District Attorney Tanner Beck, said Creary and another man, Tymere Parker, “ambushed” Clarke, on Nov. 25, 2021, waiting outside Clarke’s home and planning to kill him.

Clarke, who fired the shot that killed Pelaez Moctezuma, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and reckless endangerment, and was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in state prison. His attorney, Gregory P. Dipippo, said Clarke suffers from anxiety and PTSD from earlier incidents in his life, and that, had the case gone to trial, he would have contended that he shot toward his attackers in self-defense.

But Clarke wanted to take responsibility for his actions, Dipippo said.

“This was a very difficult case, and he never intended on that individual losing his life,” he said.

» READ MORE: Norristown man killed at home by stray bullet while eating Thanksgiving dinner

After Clarke’s hearing, Creary, who initially declined the prosecutors’ offer, made a surprise reversal and pleaded to third-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. The deal was almost derailed when Creary at first refused to acknowledge that Parker was with him on the night of the shooting. But after speaking with his attorney, Illon Fish, he relented. He was sentenced to 25 to 50 years in state prison.

Afterward, Creary apologized to Pelaez Moctezuma’s family, saying he never intended to harm him.

Added Fish, his lawyer, “By accepting responsibility, he acknowledges that his actions had a profound impact on this family. He is just grateful that his sentence is a number and not a word: Life.”

Parker, 21, rejected a similar plea deal, and is expected to go to trial Tuesday, according to prosecutors.

Beck, speaking after the hearings, said the pleas were offered in close consultation with the victim’s family, and were the best resolutions for everyone involved.

On the night of the shooting, Parker and Creary opened fire on Clarke as he walked out of his front door, chasing him down Basin Street as they shot at him, Beck said. Clarke sprinted ahead, rounding the corner of Arch Street and then turning around to shoot his own gun seven times toward his pursuers.

None of his shots struck its intended target. One flew through the window of a nearby home and struck Pelaez Moctezuma, 25, in the back as he sat around a crowded dinner table, finishing his Thanksgiving meal with about 20 loved ones. Children as young as 5 screamed and ducked for cover as the shots rang out, according to testimony Monday.

Pelaez Moctezuma was taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

» READ MORE: Two men who had open-air gunfight in Montgomery County that killed bystander found guilty of murder

In emotional testimony Monday, the victim’s father, Guadalupe Pelaez Hernandez, said that by pulling the trigger and shooting his son, Clarke “took the most fabulous life that walked on this earth.”

“You didn’t kill just my son, you killed everyone in this family,” he said through an interpreter. “I’m sure [Clarke] knows, in his heart of hearts, that if he could’ve killed more people that day, he would’ve done it.”

Still, the father said, his family’s only interest was justice, and even in their grief, he said, they wouldn’t wish their hurt on Clarke or anyone else.

“No one deserves this, no one,” he said, “and it’s just broken my family.”