Burgess held for trial in Delco slaying

Hoa Pham's wife escaped her Upper Darby home, where her husband on Nov. 10 had just been slaughtered, and ran screaming to her nephew's door, covered in blood, bound at the wrists and wearing only a nightgown, the nephew testified yesterday.

"She look terrified," said Hin Lu, who opened the door to his aunt that night, about a block from her home on Copley Road near Sansom Street. "Her wrists was tied with electricity cords."

Lu recounted the incident yesterday before Jermaine Burgess, the man accused of stabbing Hoa Pham to death and sexually assaulting his 58-year-old wife, was held for trial on charges of murder, aggravated assault, kidnapping and related offenses.

Pham, 60, a decorated former lieutenant in the South Vietnamese Army, and his wife, whose name is being withheld by the Daily News, were in bed when Burgess allegedly barged into their home, tortured them for hours while demanding money and fled with only $100.

Burgess, 37, of Springton Road near Shirley, in Upper Darby, also was held for trial just last week in a Ridley Township case involving the Oct. 27 home-invasion murder of 81-year-old Marie Ott.

According to police, Burgess confessed to both killings the weekend of Dec. 20, after he was picked up in Philadelphia for a violent carjacking.

In January, Gov. Rendell said the record racked up by Burgess, a three-time parolee with weapons and robbery convictions, was the push he needed to support stronger laws for repeat, violent offenders.

Burgess used a public defender at his preliminary hearing in Ridley Township Feb. 2, but yesterday he was represented by private attorney Pierre La Tour.

La Tour said Burgess' mother and sister hired him, although neither showed up yesterday in his support.

Upper Darby Police Detective Kevin Dinan said on the stand that Burgess had claimed he had tried to threaten Pham's "out of control" widow by fashioning a Ziploc bag around his penis like a makeshift condom. Police allege that Burgess used the bag as a prophylactic while he raped the victim.

Burgess "absolutely" maintains his innocence on the Upper Darby case and police have little else to tie him to the crime except for his confession, La Tour said.

But Delaware County Deputy District Attorney Daniel McDevitt said the prosecution has plenty of evidence without the victim's testimony or the confession.

"We don't think there's any issue with the person who brutalized Mister Pham and [his wife] inside of their home," he said.

A county judge will decide if the Upper Darby and Ridley Township cases will be tried together, McDevitt said. *