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Man who shot Daily News & Inquirer driver guilty

A Common Pleas jury yesterday convicted a 24-year-old Southwest Philly man of attempted murder and related offenses in the shooting of a Daily News and Inquirer driver last year.

A Common Pleas jury yesterday convicted a 24-year-old Southwest Philly man of attempted murder and related offenses in the shooting of a

Daily News

and

Inquirer

driver last year.

After the verdict, victim Christopher Pearo, 37, said that he was "extremely" happy and satisfied.

Pearo testified at trial and identified Dante Robinson as the man who stuck a gun in his stomach about 3:50 a.m. June 18, 2007, outside his delivery truck at 64th Street and Buist Avenue, in Southwest Philadelphia.

Although Pearo gave the gunman the $15 he had, the thug shot him in the back of the neck anyway as he and an accomplice fled.

The day after the shooting, Pearo immediately picked Robinson from a police photo array.

Assistant District Attorney Lynn Nichols, Police Officer Eric Riddick, Detective Joseph Murray and the newspapers' Teamsters Local 628 secretary and treasurer, Jack Quigley, were also happy with the outcome.

"I'm ecstatic," said Murray, who said that he and Riddick had thought of Robinson as a possible suspect based on Pearo's description and Robinson's past arrests.

Nichols said that Robinson faces a maximum sentence of 55 to 110 years when he is sentenced by Judge Lisa Rau on Dec. 4. She said she plans to ask for a sentence of at least 15 to 30 years.

As Robinson walked into the courtroom to hear the verdict, he swaggered in with a grin. When the jury forewoman read the first "guilty" verdict on the attempted-murder charge, he still smiled.

The jury also found Robinson guilty of aggravated assault, robbery, conspiracy, carrying a firearm on a public street and possession of an instrument of crime.

Public defender Francis Carmen maintained after the verdict that Robinson is innocent and said that he plans to appeal. An alibi witness, Tracie Jones, testified that Robinson, a friend of her son Terron, was sleeping at her house, on 69th Street near Buist Avenue, at the time of the shooting. *