A drug deal, shots, and a teen dealer's 14-year-old friend is dead

Though Nicholas Matteucci was three years older, he said he and 14-year-old Ian Wilsey were inseparable.

"He was my best friend, like my little brother," Matteucci testified Tuesday. "We've known each other two to three years. We'd sleep over each other's houses. Once, I slept over at his house for 17 straight days."

That friendship ended in death shortly after 9:30 p.m. on Nov. 28, 2016, Matteucci told a Philadelphia judge, when Wilsey decided to accompany him to a marijuana sale at Brous Avenue and Devereaux Street in the Mayfair section of the Northeast.

That $35 sale to "Anthony," one of his repeat customers, Matteucci testified, was interrupted by two men, one of whom brandished a pistol. Matteucci testified that he yelled "Run" and heard three or four gunshots. He said he heard Wilsey cry out in pain and fall to the sidewalk.

Matteucci's testimony – contradicted by a man he identified as one of the interlopers – came during a preliminary hearing for Samir Price, 19, of the Northeast, who prosecutors allege was the masked gunman who shot the ninth grader from Northeast High School in the back.

Municipal Court Judge Patrick F. Dugan ordered Price held for trial on murder, robbery, conspiracy, and related charges, and railed against the situation on the streets of the Northeast.

"I don't find guilt or innocence, but I can find what's going on in the streets of Northeast Philadelphia, which used to be a place where kids could just be kids," Dugan said.

"This is not a game. You can't push the replay button," Dugan added. "We have a 14-year-old dead and a 19-year-old sitting in jail now on murder charges."

In the courtroom gallery, on the other side of a bulletproof glass partition, Wilsey's mother, Kelly, alternately sobbed and glared at Price.

As Matteucci was escorted from the courtroom, Wilsey mouthed, "Thank you," and the two embraced.

Matteucci had interrupted his testimony once, saying, "Ian was not there selling drugs with me. He was just my friend."

Assistant District Attorneys Jude Conroy and Danielle Burkavage presented two witnesses: Matteucci and Michael Washington, 22, the man Matteucci said was one of the two who interrupted the marijuana sale.

Both testified under promises of immunity from prosecution and both told stories that contradicted the other in key ways.

Matteucci said that a week before the slaying, Washington approached him on the street and asked to buy marijuana. When the teen said he didn't have any, Washington allegedly "warned me that I was on his turf, that I should not be selling weed on his turf."

Questioned by Price's lawyers, Roger M. Schrading and Andrea Konow, Washington denied saying those words to Matteucci. He said he knew Matteucci because the teen would sometimes come to his friend Anthony's house to sell marijuana.

Washington also elaborated on what happened before and after the fatal encounter. Washington said Anthony or "Ant" – identified by Conroy as Anthony Alleyne, 21 – called him that night as he was driving home from work and asked to pick him up to buy some marijuana.

When he arrived at Alleyne's house, Washington testified, his friend walked out with Price and told him to drive to Brous and Devereaux, where Alleyne was "to make a purchase from Nick."

When they arrived at the corner, Washington said, he dropped off Alleyne and went to park the car. As he and Price walked toward the sale, Washington said he heard Alleyne say, "Hit them," also using a racial slur.

As Matteucci and Wilsey ran, Washington said, he saw Price draw a pistol and start firing. Washington said he and his two partners got back in the car. As they drove away, Washington said, both he and Alleyne berated Price for shooting. Washington, however, said he did not ask Alleyne why he told Price to shoot and Alleyne did not talk about it.

Conroy also read a portion of a Nov. 30 statement to police by Alleyne in which he described the car ride to the drug deal with Matteucci.

"Samir told me not to pay for it, just take it," Alleyne said, according to Conroy. "I told him, 'Chill out, that's my young boy.' "

After the hearing, Conroy said that Alleyne had not been charged in the shooting but that the investigation continues.