The incredible shrinking man
It’s common knowledge that people get shorter as they age but what happened to the late Demetrius Gilbert had the makings of a medical mystery.
It's common knowledge that people get shorter as they age but what happened to the late Demetrius Gilbert had the makings of a medical mystery.
Gilbert was only 24 but, if official records were to be believed, he lost five inches in height and gained 14 pounds between April 11, when police arrested him on drug charges, and June 21, when police say the proprietor of Johnny Ace's bar in North Philadelphia shot him in the chest during a barroom altercation.
It was a question that burned in the mind of Philadelphia Municipal Court Judge James M. DeLeon at Tuesday's preliminary hearing for bar owner John Ace Salmons. And veteran defense attorney Nino V. Tinari, laying the foundation for an eventual self-defense claim, did all he could to keep that fire stoked.
One of Tinari's problems was Salmons' stature. Even at age 67, Salmons is an imposing, muscular 6-foot-3 and 265 pounds. Gilbert, measured and weighed by the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's office during the autopsy, was 5-foot-9 and 234 pounds. On its face, hardly a fair fight.
Tinari, however, came up with information recorded by police when Gilbert was being processed after his April 11 drug arrest. Then, police said Gilbert was a competitive 6-foot-2 and 220 pounds.
"It was almost a fair fight," DeLeon mused.
"No, he's a lot shorter," protested Assistant District Attorney Kristen Kemp, arguing that Gilbert's body was weighed and measured at autopsy by a forensic pathologist. The police record was "self-reported" -- what Gilbert told officers when they asked for his height and weight.
DeLeon disagreed, telling Kemp that police photograph newly arrested people in front of a wall with a height scale.
Well, they don't, at least not in Philadelphia, proof that even the perceptions of a veteran judge in the criminal justice system can be molded by mass media.
"It's self-reporting, we don't have the capability to measure and weigh everyone," said Philadelphia Police Sgt. Eric Gripp. "As long as they're being cooperative and not saying something outlandish, we take what they tell us."
Or, as the saying goes, it's not like TV.
As it turned out, the debate did nothing for Salmons' immediate future. DeLeon told Tinari that self-defense was something for a trial jury to decide. At a preliminary hearing, DeLeon added, he just had to decide if the prosecutor's evidence was enough for a trial.
DeLeon credited the testimony of one patron of Johnny Ace's bar that night who said he saw Gilbert come in to the bar at 29th Street and Chalmers Avenue, pick an argument with Salmons and say he was going to "get him." There was a "tussle" at the bar's door, Gilbert got shot and Salmons had a gun.
DeLeon ordered Salmons to be tried for murder and possessing a prohibited weapon. Kemp said Salmons' prior felony convictions made it illegal for him to have the gun, which police have not found.