Homeless man gets 8 to 25 years in LOVE Park slaying

A homeless man convicted of stabbing and killing another homeless man in Center City's LOVE Park after an argument was sentenced to eight to 25 years in prison Friday.

Frederick Mills, 47, apologized for killing Allen Jordan, 43, after a late-night confrontation in August 2011.

During a jury trial in February before Common Pleas Court Judge Linda Carpenter, Mills testified that he got into the argument with Jordan after he was roughed up and robbed of jewelry.

"He has no prior record and he's 47 years old," defense attorney Jay S. Gottlieb said of Mills. "It was an argument, and it just got out of hand."

Gottlieb asked Carpenter to impose a sentence of three to 10 years.

Carpenter's sentence was between Gottlieb's request and Assistant District Attorney John O'Neill's request of a 15- to 30-year term for guilty verdicts on third-degree murder and a weapons offense.

At trial - the third after two ended in hung juries - O'Neill argued that Jordan's killing "should not have happened. This should have ended with a split lip and some hurt pride."

Jordan, stabbed once in the chest, stumbled several feet before collapsing in front of another homeless man and asking to go to the hospital. Passersby called 911 and later described Mills as having left the scene.

Mills was arrested a short time later at 17th and Market Streets. O'Neill said Mills admitted to police that he had been in a fight in LOVE Park but did not say he had stabbed a man.