An tearful day of testimony in cop killer’s trial

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In a mournful day of testimony that regularly brought men and women, jurors, veteran cops and prosecutors to tears, the widow of Police Officer Chuck Cassidy today told a Philadelphia jury about life after 10:30 a.m. Oct. 31, 2007.

"We left the hospital and Chuck never came home. We never came home either," said Judy Cassidy, his wife of 26 years and the mother of their three children.

Cassidy testified for about 20 minutes during the penalty phase of the trial to determine if her husband's confessed killer, John "Jordan" Lewis, 23, should be put to death.

Cassidy read from a letter describing in melancholy detail a life decimated by her husband's death after he walked into a North Philadelphia doughnut shop being robbed by Lewis.

From a close-knit family which took pains to celebrate birthdays and holidays in high style, Cassidy said, "We don't celebrate holidays, there are no decorations, and I can't bring myself to buy birthday cards for the kids."

"All I do is cry alone at home," Cassidy added. "Life sucks."

By day's end, the late hour and the emotional testimony appeared to have taken its toll on the jury's four men and eight women, and they asked to return Monday to finish their task.

Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart said that when the penalty phase hearing resumes, the jury will hear closing arguments from the defense and prosecution lawyers, his legal instructions and then begin considering Lewis' fate.

If the jury decides not to impose the death penalty, Lewis is automatically sentenced to life in prison without chance of parole.

In addition to Judy Cassidy, the jury also heard from the Cassidys oldest child, Katie, who testified about her 21st birthday, a few weeks after her father's death.

Looking at her father's work schedule after he died, Cassidy said she saw he planned to take off on her birthday.

Father and daughter had been looking to celebrate her 21st with a "highball" at midnight.

Instead, Cassidy said, she drank that highball alone.

Cassidy's brother-in-law, Anthony Conti, read a letter from Cassidy's daughter, Colby.

The letter described a tight family that didn't have many luxuries, but loved the simple pleasures of shared Sunday dinners and holidays.

"We were happy, we were perfect, we were everything we ever wanted," Colby Cassidy wrote.

The youngest Cassidy child, John, a high school senior, did not testify.

Cassidy's former partner, retired officer Michael Mahalis, referring to the Cassidy family, told the jury: "It is heartbreaking to see such good people deal with such a horrible and sudden loss."

Mahalis, who called Cassidy, 54, "my best friend," was choking back tears from the moment he took the stand. He eventually could not continue.

Assistant District Attorney Edward Cameron took over the reading and then he, too, was overwhelmed. Cameron's fellow prosecutor, Jennifer Selber, finished.

Lewis' family, pleading for his life, said they could not explain what led the 23-year-old to suddenly embark on a series of six armed robberies in the fall of 2007, the last ending in Cassidy's murder.

"I'm truly sorry the Cassidy children and his wife have to go what they're going through and what we are all going through, I truly am," testified Lynn Dyches, Lewis mother, a veteran of the Army National Guard and a Philadelphia prisons correctional officer who raised her son and two daughters alone.

Dyches, Lewis' grandmother and his younger sister, Jasmine, all described Lewis as a child who was close to the family. All also testified that they thought Lewis missed the presence of a male role model in his life.

Lewis father, John Sr., was shot in the head and killed when the boy was 5. According to court records, Lewis Sr. was a bystander caught in the armed robbery of a drug dealer in Hunting Park.

One person the jury did not hear from was Lewis himself, who told Judge Minehart he did not wish to testify in the penalty phase of his trial.

Lewis did not testify at trial, and defense attorney Michael Coard called no defense witnesses.

On Thursday, the jury found Lewis guilty of first-degree murder - a malicious, purposeful premeditated killing - for shooting and killing the 25-year veteran officer as he walked in on Lewis' holdup at a Dunkin' Donuts at 6620 N. Broad St., West Oak Lane.

Cassidy, shot once in the head, died the next day.

The first-degree murder verdict led to today's penalty-face hearing to determine if Lewis should be executed by lethal injection or sentenced to life.

In his opening statement to the jury, defense attorney Bernard L. Siegel asked the jury to remember they are "sentencing a person" about whom they know very little.

"There's nothing about first-degree murder that can make it more terrible or less terrible," Siegel said.

Siegel said he would argue that Lewis' actions should be mitigated by his age - he was 21 at the time he shot Cassidy - and the background from Lewis' mother and family.

Siegel emphasized the jurors' stark choice: Lewis will remain behind bars in a maximum-security prison until he dies - or "until he comes out for execution."

Prosecutor Selber told the jury that a death sentence was the only possible sentence based on the evidence.

Selber said that of the aggravating factors the jury needs to consider to impose the death penalty - the jury only needs to find one - three are inherent in the jury's first-degree verdict: killing a police officer in the line of duty, killing while committing another crime, and a "significant history of felony convictions."

The last of the three was given to the panel by Lewis when he pleaded guilty on the first day of trial to a general count of murder and six armed robberies including the robbery where Cassidy was fatally wounded.