Cab driver testifies robber bit off his ear

A visibly upset Quaker City Cab driver testified yesterday that a passenger with a knife threatened to kill him as they drove down North Broad Street, and that the man bit off a chunk of his ear.

"He bit a piece of my ear off," said William Milburn, 60. "That's what he did."

Upon hearing that, observers in the courtroom gallery at the 24th and 25th Police Districts in North Philadelphia gasped.

Milburn testified that medics who came to rescue him at Broad Street and Erie Avenue, Hunting Park, tried sewing the bitten-off chunk of his right earlobe back on, but couldn't.

Municipal Judge Jacquelyn Frazier-Lyde yesterday held Kenneth Williams, 47, of Mower Street near Sedgwick, West Mount Airy, for trial on all charges including aggravated assault, robbery, possession of an instrument of crime and terroristic threats.

Williams, who is out on bail, was dressed in a button-down pink shirt and tan slacks. He declined to comment after the hearing.

Milburn told reporters afterward that he was glad Williams was held on all charges.

"When he's criminally convicted, I'm going to sue him for everything I can for what he's done to me. . . . He told me he wanted to kill me," Milburn said. "For that, I hope he burns in hell."

He added:"I'm going to be his worst nightmare. He's going to pay me for pain, suffering and for fixing my ear."

Milburn testified that about 5:45 a.m. May 10, he was at a gas station on Broad Street near Butler when Williams asked for a ride to Broad Street and Allegheny Avenue.

As they headed south, Milburn testified, Williams, who was in the back seat, then asked him to make a left onto a small street. Milburn refused. "I had a bad feeling about it," he said in court.

The next thing Milburn knew, Williams was reaching through the open glass partition in the cab with a knife in his right hand and said that "I better give him my money or he's going to kill me," Milburn testified. "He said it four times."

At that, Milburn said he purposely drove for the next block on the wrong side of Broad Street at 60 mph in an area where he knew there were police cameras to try to catch the attention of the police.

At Erie Avenue, Milburn said he saw a SEPTA bus and jumped out of his cab.

But Williams was close behind.

"The next minute, he got on top of me. He robbed me" of about $120, Milburn said.

Williams then got into the cab and started to drive off. Milburn testified that he "tried to hold onto the bumper" and got his knees scraped.

Williams didn't make it very far, though: He promptly drove the cab into a parked BMW, Milburn testified.

During the retelling of the adrenaline-pumping robbery, Milburn initially forgot to mention his ear. When Assistant District Attorney Danielle Graham asked what happened next, he recalled being taken on a stretcher.

That's when Milburn angrily told the court that Williams had bitten off a fleshy chunk of his ear while the two men were still in the cab.

Under cross-examination by defense attorney Alston Meade Jr., Milburn said Williams "didn't look menacing" at first.

The knife Williams pulled out "looked like a kitchen knife . . . the type of knife you use to carve chickens or turkeys with," Milburn said.

After the hearing, Milburn said he still works as a Quaker City Cab driver. "I have to make a living to live in this city, which I intend to finally leave once it's over," he said. "But I'm real careful now. I have to be careful, because predators are all over this city."

He then walked to the other side of Whitaker Avenue, got into his green and white cab and drove off. *