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Gunman who killed W. Philly community activist Winnie Harris gets 35 to 70 years in prison

Nelson Giddings was sentenced to 35 to 70 years in state prison after he had pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and related offenses in the Feb. 2017 shooting death of Harris, who was the acting executive director and longtime volunteer coordinator at UC Green.

Winnie Harris with vegetables she grew in the Holly Street Neighbors Community Garden, which she founded in 2005.
Winnie Harris with vegetables she grew in the Holly Street Neighbors Community Garden, which she founded in 2005.Read moreCourtesy of family

At a sentencing hearing Friday for the man who fatally shot West Philadelphia community activist Winnie Harris in 2017, her daughter told a judge that Harris “meant so much to so many people," was “the citizen you would want to have in your community,” and created gardening jobs for people.

A prosecutor called Harris, who was acting executive director at UC Green, a nonprofit that plants and tends trees, “a beautiful soul."

And Common Pleas Court Judge Barbara McDermott noted that Harris stayed in her Powelton neighborhood because she was devoted to her community, and said even inmates at the state prison in Waymart had circulated a news article about Harris because they wanted to pay tribute to her.

Harris’ killer, Nelson Giddings, was housed in Waymart after his arrest. McDermott on Friday sentenced Giddings to 35 to 70 years in state prison for the February 2017 shooting death of Harris, 65, in her second-floor bedroom on the 300 block of North Holly Street.

The 41-year-old North Philadelphia man pleaded guilty April 8 to third-degree murder, robbery, burglary, conspiracy to commit burglary, and gun offenses.

Evidence showed that Giddings and Isaiah Reels planned to rob Harris’ next-door neighbor, Theodore Williams, who they thought had drugs and money at his house. But Giddings went to the wrong house and shot Harris while Reels acted as the lookout in a nearby alley.

Giddings sobbed and covered his face with clasped hands when three of Harris’ loved ones — her cousin, a close friend, and her daughter, Neche — spoke to the judge.

Elizabeth Waring, the friend, told the judge that purple was Harris’ favorite color; how she and others are “doing our best” to maintain the Holly Street Neighbors Community Garden, which Harris set up on her block; and how Harris enjoyed working with youngsters as she organized the Green Corps youth program at UC Green.

“There’s good and there’s evil. There’s right and there’s wrong,” Waring said. “What he did to her was evil.”

Charmaine Benson, the cousin, said Harris “never hurt any human in her whole entire life." She wondered why Giddings had to shoot Harris three times.

“One wasn’t good enough?” she asked. “The second one didn’t make it? Why three?”

Giddings apologized to the victim’s loved ones. Surprising them, he also gave more details of what happened that night.

Giddings said the house was dark and he couldn’t see. He said Harris remained in her bedroom as she picked up a bat and tried to defend herself. Swinging it, she knocked the gun out of his hand, he said.

“I could have run out of that house," he said, "but I wanted to get that gun out of there.”

Assistant District Attorney Jason Grenell, who asked for a sentence of 40 to 80 years, said Giddings, who has a long criminal history starting at age 12 with an assault arrest, was arrested five times as a juvenile and 13 times as an adult. Not satisfied with making money from selling drugs, Giddings committed a burglary in 2010, the prosecutor said.

After Giddings killed Harris in 2017 but before he was arrested eight months later, Giddings committed another burglary in Delaware County, the prosecutor said.

Defense attorney Jason Kadish said Giddings knows he did a "horrible thing” by killing Harris.

Reels, 32, also pleaded guilty April 8 to third-degree murder and related offenses. He faces a Sept. 9 sentencing hearing.

A third person, Laukesha McGruder, 38, of West Philadelphia, a friend of Giddings’, was arrested April 8 and faces a preliminary hearing on charges of murder, burglary, and related offenses. She allegedly helped plot the burglary that was supposed to have taken place at Williams’ home.