Man charged with four counts of murder: 'I fired until the gun was empty'

Vonzell "Pooh" Roundtree told police that he saw a couple of men punch his uncle in Abay Wheelers Bar, in Southwest Philly, two years ago, and that's when he grabbed his 9 mm Beretta.

"It just seemed like everyone just started swarming Jamar," Roundtree said in a statement referring to his uncle, Jamar Thompson. "That's when I came out with my gun and started shooting. . . . I fired until the gun was empty."

Afterward, Roundtree told police, he noticed that his uncle was shot. "I watched the life leave his body.

"I didn't go in the bar with no intention of killing someone," Roundtree said in the statement, read in court yesterday by Homicide Detective John Harkins. "I thought I was protecting a family member. I just acted out of emotion. . . . I seen a family member in distress."

Roundtree, 28, is on trial for four counts of first-degree murder before Common Pleas Judge Benjamin Lerner. He is accused of killing his uncle, 31, whom Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Selber said was struck by three bullets to the back.

He is also accused of killing the two men he identified as having punched his uncle - Claude Snelling, 30, and Arthur Jennings, 20. Jennings was hit by six bullets, which entered his chest or back.

And he is accused of killing a fourth man, Stacy Gallmon, 36, a friend of his uncle's. Gallmon, who was hit in the abdomen and wrist and whose legs were amputated above the knee as a result of his injuries, died at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania on Aug. 24, Selber said.

The men and about a dozen other people were in the bar on 62nd Street near Wheeler to watch a televised boxing match. The shooting occurred about 12:30 a.m. on July 22, 2007, shortly after the match ended.

Roundtree, who was arrested six days later at his house on Rodman Street near 58th, West Philadelphia, said in his statement that he had gone to the bar to watch the match and had gotten a drink. He said that he didn't know Snelling or Jennings.

Harkins said he and Roundtree talked about a variety of subjects - the case, Iraq, the Bible, the Quran, both men's families and Roundtree's job - before Roundtree admitted to the shootings.

Then, at some point, Roundtree "got sullen [and] said, 'I'll tell you what happened,' " Harkins testified.

Selber said that a police firearms expert tested the ballistics evidence found at the scene and determined that the cartridge casings and projectiles had been fired from a 9 mm Beretta that was recovered by police - in a blue nylon bag, with the name "Pooh" on it - from a house on Glenmore Avenue near 61st Street. Testimony at the trial previously indicated that the house was a drug house run by Roundtree's uncles, Jamar and Landrum Thompson.

If convicted of first-degree murder or of two counts of third-degree murder, Roundtree faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison. The prosecution decided not to pursue the death penalty after Roundtree agreed to have a nonjury trial.

The city under then-Mayor Street shut the Abay bar after the shooting. A spokeswoman for Mayor Nutter said the property is still closed.

The trial continues tomorrow. *