Horrific deaths, injuries described for jurors in Salvation Army collapse trial

For 40 minutes, 59-year-old Andre Harmon proudly narrated a courtroom slide show of the life of his mother, Juanita: her childhood, her work as a secretary and part-time bartender, her role as a full-time single mother of four boys.

He joked about her rules, her thrift, and how she doted on her grandchildren more than him. He held it all together until lawyer Robert J. Mongeluzzi asked about the impact of her death in the rubble of the Salvation Army thrift store in Center City in 2013.

"None of us will see her again, hear her laugh again," Harmon told the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court jury on Friday, his voice filling with emotion. "As a family, there's a hole there."

"I don't know what people are talking about when they say there's going to be some closure," Harmon added. "There is none. There's no closure for me."

In the gallery, Harmon's younger brother Angelo sagged in his chair, wiping his eyes.

For the last 15 weeks, the jury of seven men and five women had focused on why the deadly 2013 Center City building collapse happened and who should be held legally responsible.

Now, for the first time, the jury was confronted with the reality of what happened to 19 people inside the Salvation Army thrift store when it was crushed by four stories of brick masonry.

Mongeluzzi referred to the deaths and injuries the June 5, 2013 collapse caused and told the jury it would now hear about "the enormity of that harm, the enormity of that disaster, the enormity of the horror when that happened."

Mongeluzzi, who represents the relatives of several of the seven who died – six immediately – and several of the 12 injured, led a round of opening statements in the damages phase of the civil litigation from the collapse of a building under demolition that buried the adjacent thrift store.

The same jury on Tuesday returned liability verdicts against the Salvation Army; New York real estate speculator Richard Basciano and his STB Investments Corp.; and Center City architect Plato A. Marinakos Jr., hired by Basciano to monitor demolition of the building that destroyed the thrift store.

The jury found that Salvation Army officers ignored warnings of the danger of a possible collapse from Basciano's top aide, and did not investigate the warnings or pass on information to the workers and customers of the store.

It found that Basciano cut corners and hired an inexperienced, incompetent architect and that Marinakos acted similarly when he recommended North Philadelphia contractor Griffin Campbell for the project.

Campbell and his excavator operator, Sean Benschop, were also found liable for causing the disaster but the jury apportioned each just 1 percent of the responsibility.

Campbell and Benschop were the only two people criminally convicted as a result of the collapse. Both are serving long prison terms and are indigent.

It was unclear Friday if Marinakos was still a part of the damages phase, or if his lawyers had settled with the plaintiffs.

Neither Marinakos nor his lawyers were in court Friday and in her opening comments to the jury, Judge M. Teresa Sarmina did not mention the architect when she named the defendants facing damages.

Marinakos' attorney, Neil P. Clain Jr., did not return messages left at his office.

Throughout the 15 weeks of trial before Tuesday's verdict, Sarmina had sharply restricted any testimony about the harm to the collapse victims to avoid prejudicing the jury against the defendants.

Friday's trial session, expected to last through the month, focused on nothing but the pain, suffering, and loss the disaster left behind.

Projecting family photos on a large courtroom screen, Mongeluzzi described the life of Juanita Harmon of West Philadelphia, a 75-year-old retired secretary at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, who died in the rubble.

Harmon, like other victims, had gone to the thrift store that day because it was "family day," a sale that occurred there the first Wednesday of every month, and she wanted to buy items for her grandchildren.

"She lived six to eight hours in the rubble trapped, her body compressed, her neck broken," Mongeluzzi told the jury.

Mongeluzzi's partner, Jeffrey P. Goodman, introduced the jury to Nadine White, 57, a South Philadelphia woman who worked in the store and was buried for 30 to 45 minutes before being rescued.

White testified briefly earlier in the trial, describing what the collapse was like and how it affected her.

Goodman said White was lucky to escape without permanent physical injuries, but the emotional injuries remain.

"She goes through a lot, every single day," Goodman told the jury. "When a building you're in collapses around you, you lose all trust."

Lawyer Steven G. Wigrizer described the life of Roseline Conteh, 52, who escaped civil war in her native Sierra Leone and died in the rubble before she could bring her husband and the last of their four children to join her in the United States, in the Kingsessing section of Southwest Philadelphia.

"Her husband did not arrive here until after her death," Wigrizer said.

The last opening of the day was by lawyer Andrew J. Stern, representing Mariya Plekan, a 52-year-old Ukrainian immigrant who was buried for 13 hours in the rubble before being rescued.

"They called her the miracle on Market Street," Stern told the jury. "But this miracle did not have a happy ending."

Using graphic hospital photos of Plekan in bed, Stern described the "guillotine amputation, the removal of the lower half of her body" after she was rescued.

Stern said Plekan has survived 30 surgeries, kidney failure, lung problems and has lost her ability to speak because of the damage caused by long periods on a respirator.

Plekan, who testified briefly using an electronic device earlier in the trial, was not in court. Stern said a quarantine at her West Philadelphia nursing home made it impossible for her to leave. Her friend and constant companion, Dariya Tareb, was in court and wept at the photos of her friend.

Stern said Plekan will always need around-the-clock care and estimated her future medical expenses at $50 million.

Pointing to the Salvation Army representatives and lawyers in court, Stern said, "These defendants took every enjoyable element of her life and it's gone."

The lawyers for Basciano and the Salvation Army did not make opening statements to the jury, although they could later. None had questions for Harmon, or for police crime scene Officer John Taggart or Fire Chief John J. O'Neill, who described the chaos immediately after the collapse, the rescue of Plekan, and the recovery of six bodies.