Two found guilty in Liczbinski trial

The two men on trial for murder in the fatal shooting of a Philadelphia police sergeant after a 2008 bank robbery were found guilty today of first-degree murder.

The prosecution will now seek the death penalty against Eric Deshann Floyd, 35, and Levon T. Warner, 41 for their roles in the May 3, 2008 slaying of Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski, 39. The penalty phase of the trial will begin Monday.

The Common Pleas jury of seven men and five women announced the verdict at about 1:30 p.m. on the third day of deliberations.

The slain sergeant's wife of 20 years, Michelle, the couple's three children, Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey and District Attorney Seth Williams were in the packed courtroom at the Criminal Justice Center for the reading of the verdict.

During the trial - which spanned four weeks - Assistant District Attorney Jude Conroy argued that the defendants were just as responsible for the slaying as Howard Cain, 34, the triggerman and bank-robbery mastermind. Police killed him later that day.

All three were armed and shared the "specific intent to kill" anyone who got in their way of robbing the Port Richmond Bank of America, Conroy told the jury during his closing argument Friday.

"They were armed to the gills. Death was to be expected if somebody got in the way," Conroy said.

The defendants' attorneys pushed back, conceding that while their clients had helped rob the bank they had no part in murdering Liczbinski.

Attorney W. Fred Harrison Jr. asserted that Warner - a former boxer - was to mentally challenged to plot to kill someone.

Cain, he said, was the director, producer and star of the mayhem that claimed Liczbinski's life.

Attorney Earl Kauffman said that Floyd never hurt anyone during his extensive criminal career.

"The fact that you bring a gun to a robbery does not get you to first [degree murder]. It gets you to second," Kauffman told the jury.

Floyd, barred from the courtroom for most of the trial because he attacked one of his attorneys during jury selection, was not present for the sentencing.

Liczbinski, a 12-year veteran who had been promoted to sergeant just six months earlier, spotted the stolen getaway Jeep Liberty a few blocks for the bank.

At 11:29 a.m., Liczbinski, calm and in control, told a police dispatcher: "I got that vehicle stopped on 3500 Edgemont."

Then, "southbound on Edgemont," then, "eastbound on Schiller," finally, "still eastbound, coming up on Almond."

As the jury listened to the recording of Liczbinski's last words, his widow, Michelle, softy wept.

At the Port Richmond intersection of Schiller and Almond streets, Floyd stopped the Jeep. Liczbinski stopped his cruiser behind it and started to get out.

Cain asked for the rifle and Warner handed it to him, Conroy told the jury.

Cain got out. Liczbinski said to him, "Hold it, don't do it," or "You don't want to do that," according to a statement Floyd gave homicide detectives.

Cain didn't listen. He squeezed off a barage of bullets from the stolen assault rifle.

Hit eight times, Liczbinski fell beside his car, covered in blood with bones protruding from his arm.

Horrified neighbors tried to aid the mortally wounded sergeant, as the three robbers sped off toward a second getaway vehicle they'd stashed at Miller and Ontario streets.

Switching to the Chrysler Town and Country minivan allowed the trio to initially elude capture, as several police officers drove passed them looking for the Jeep.

About 15 minutes after Liczbinski was gunned down, a bank tracking device led police to the minivan, parked at 500 E. Loudon St.

Floyd and Warner had taken off on foot by then, but Cain was there, along with the stolen $38,100.

The van's sliding door was open, allowing Cain to sit with his feet on the sidewalk as he worked with the murder weapon - which had become jammed.

Unbeknownst to him, two uniformed police officers were approaching, one from the left, the other from the right.

After Cain attempted to shoot Officer Bisart Worede, he and Officer Shamaya Allen opened fire, killing Cain with nine bullets each.

Warner, meanwhile, called police to report that he had been carjacked of the minivan, which belonged to his mother. Police quickly discovered that he was involved in the robbery and slaying and arrested him.

Floyd was arrested four days later in an abandoned Southwest Philadelphia rowhouse.