Three men held for trial in ballpark beating death
Three men charged with taking part in the July 25 beating death of a man in the parking lot outside the Phillies' ball park were ordered held for trial on murder charges today by a Philadelphia judge who said he was "shocked by the savagery of the attack."
Three men charged with taking part in the July 25 beating death of a man in the parking lot outside the Phillies' ball park were ordered held for trial on murder charges today by a Philadelphia judge who said he was "shocked by the savagery of the attack."
Sorting through the notes of six hours of sometimes contradictory testimony from 12 witnesses in which all three men were identified as the key assailants of David W. Sale Jr., Municipal Court Thomas Nocella said he was struck most by what was missing: the absence of any defense wounds on Sale's hands.
"There was no damage to his hands," said Nocella. "Everything was directed at him."
Nocella held Charles Bowers, 35; James Grove, 45, and Francis Kirchner, 28, held for trial on a general charge of murder, which means it will be left to a jury to decided if the three are guilty and, if so, of what degree of murder.
The ruling also means that the three will continue being held without bail pending trial.
Defense attorneys argued that the judge should not hold the three for trial on murder charges because there was no evidence they conspired to kill Sale or linking any of them what they contended was the fatal injury: a tear to Sale's left vertebral artery in the neck that caused massive bleeding into his brain and spinal column.
Several witnesses identified Kirchner as the man who allegedly kicked Sale in the neck area after the 22-year-old Lansdale man was prone on the ground.
Daniel Curran, who called Sale as "my best friend," described the blow as a "brutal kick as if it was a football and he was attempting to punt my friend's face."
Jennifer Schaffer, who was on a bus with Bowers, Groves and Kirchner and about 40 to 50 people that left from Moe's Tavern, a Fishtown neighborhood pub, said she saw Kirchner kick at Sale's upper chest after he was seated on the ground and that the blow "kind of jolted him up so that his back hit a car and then he fell."
