Case of 2 slain armored-car guards going to jury; Final arguments pivot on Mustafa Ali's intent

During nearly four hours of closing arguments in Mustafa Ali's death-penalty murder trial yesterday, a Philadelphia jury heard starkly contrasting versions of why two armored-car guards ended up being shot to death in fall 2007.

Ali, now 39, meant only to rob the Loomis guards outside a Northeast bank, but fired his 9mm gun eight times because he panicked when one guard drew his gun, defense attorney Karl Schwartz argued to the Common Pleas jury.

"That is not first-degree murder," said Schwartz, one of Ali's three public defenders. "It's murder, and Mr. Ali will have to pay the price for that - and he will. But it is not premeditated, first-degree murder."

That's nonsense, Assistant District Attorney Michael Barry told the jury. Ali followed the three-man armored-car crew to the Roosevelt Mall Wachovia Bank just after 8 a.m. on Oct. 4, 2007, Barry said.

Once guards William Widmaier, 65, and Joseph Alullo, 54, exited their truck and began servicing an ATM, the prosecutor said, Ali rushed them, shot both through the heart and grabbed what turned out to be a bank bag that contained no money.

Ali also attempted to murder driver Joseph Walczak, 72, Barry said, who was saved by the truck's bulletproof glass.

The fact that Ali parked his car 300 yards from the truck, brandished an illegal gun with shaved-off serial numbers and didn't cover his face points to his premeditated motive to murder, said Barry, who is pushing for Ali to be executed.

"This was an ambush. This was shoot your way to the money," he said. "They're dead because he wanted them dead."

Arrested the day after the slayings, Ali confessed to police.

The jury is set to begin deliberating today. If it finds Ali, formerly of Woodhaven Road in the Northeast, guilty of first-degree murder, it can decide whether to impose the death penalty or a life sentence in prison; a guilty verdict of second-degree murder would carry a life sentence without parole.

"I ask you to be fair even to someone who was not fair," Schwartz begged. "I know how easy it would be to say, 'Who cares?' But I'm asking you to care."

Barry surmised that the slain guards - both retired police officers - had been shot dead over greed by Ali, a man who had two jobs and two cars.

"Money, stupid money!" he said. "There's more to life than money. Doesn't he know that?"