3 teens sentenced in death of Starbucks manager

Three North Philadelphia teenagers were each sentenced to 12-1/2 to 25 years in prison this morning in the unprovoked attack that left Sean Patrick Conroy dead of an acute asthma attack on a Center City subway concourse.

Nashir Fisher, 17; Ameer Best, 18, and Kinta Stanton, 17, appeared before Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart in the March 26, 2008 incident that resulted in a reevaluation of public safety on the subway concourses beneath Center City.

In sentencing the three teens, Minehart said he had not seen them express any signs of remorse.

"I believe they're sorry for where they are," Minehart said, "but I have no sense they feel anything like true remorse for what they did."

All thre defendants turned to Stephen and Sharon Conroy, the parents of Sean Conroy, and apologized for causing his death. Both the parents appeared unmoved.

"You've turned our lives upside down just because your street cred was more important than human life, just because you didhn't want to be known as punks," Sharon Conroy said.

On Aug. 25 a jury found the three teens guilty - Fisher and Best of third-degree murder and conspiracy and Stanton of involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy - in the death of Conroy, 36, the manager of a Starbucks coffee store in Center City.

The prosecutor has estimated that Fisher and Best face prison terms of 40 to 80 years and Stanton a sentence of 22-1/2 to 45 years in prison.

Five teenagers were arrested in the attack that killed Conroy as he walked to work in the concourse near the 13th Street Station of the Market-Frankford Subway-Elevated line in Center City.

Two pleaded guilty before trial and are awaiting sentencing: Arthur Alston, 18, and Rasheem Bell, 18. Bell also testified for the prosecution during the trial.

According to trial testimony, the five Simon Gratz students cut class at about lunch time on March 26, 2008 and went to the Gallery at Market East mall in Center City.

Later, they met a friend of Bell's - Tim Rhodes, who was not charged - who picked up on Alston's taunting of Stanton for being afraid to use his fists to punish a student who accused him of cheating at cards.

Rhodes, according to trial witnesses, dared the five, saying no one had the nerve to hit the first person they saw in the subway.

Conroy became that person. According to trial testimony, Alston rushed up behind Conroy and punched him in the head and was followed by the others.

The attack was interrupted by an approaching SEPTA police officer. But by the time police got to Conroy, his lungs were so overinflated by an acute asthma attack that he could not even speak. Conroy became unconscious and died at 3:09 p.m. at a nearby emergency room.

None of the blows Conroy sustained would have been fatal, a city medical examiner testified. Conroy died from acute stress-induced asthma.