Three employees to be tried in strip-club killing

Three employees of a Southwest Philadelphia strip club were ordered held for trial on third-degree murder charges yesterday in an Oct. 16 beating in the club's parking lot that left a patron mortally wounded.

Municipal Court Judge Karen Yvette Simmons ruled that there was enough evidence to hold the three men on third-degree murder and related charges in the death of James Koons, 31, of Media, at the Oasis Gentleman's Club in the 6800 block of Essington Avenue.

Held for trial were Robert Laflar, 44, identified in court as the owner of the club; John Pettit, 48, of Pennsauken, the manager; and bouncer Edwin Padua, 49, of Philadelphia.

Simmons dismissed the murder count against another bouncer, Timothy Carpenter, 29, of Downingtown, but ordered him held for trial on assault and related charges.

The judge dismissed all charges against Brendan Davis, 33, of Oreland, a bouncer, and Staci Shoenberger, 33, of Swarthmore, a businesswoman who drove into the Oasis parking lot about 6 p.m., shortly after Koons and a friend, George Foreacre, 35, of Secane, were ejected from the club.

Shoenberger had been charged with participating in a conspiracy to hinder prosecution of Koons' assailant, but Simmons ruled that there was no evidence she was anything but a bystander who tried to intervene.

Neither Shoenberger nor Davis would comment after the hearing.

Foreacre testified about bad blood between Koons and the Oasis staff that erupted into what he described as an ambush as he and his friend were watching a Phillies playoff game.

Foreacre testified that he was hit from behind, dragged into the parking lot, and dumped there, only to be beaten and kicked. Foreacre, trying to call police outside, said he saw Koons confronted by a group of Oasis bouncers. He said that he turned his head away for a moment looking for police and that, when he turned again, Koons was on the asphalt, bleeding from his head.

Defense attorneys, however, focused on audio from the 911 calls that made Koons and Foreacre sound heavily intoxicated. Oasis security video shows Koons being carried out to the parking lot and Foreacre not unconscious but being escorted outside.

Once outside, witnesses said, the pair continued yelling at club staff watching from inside the club's glass doors, with Koons demanding the return of a credit card.

The video shows the altercation re-erupting outside when Laflar arrives on the scene and is confronted by the former patrons, and bouncers rush out the door.

Assistant District Attorney Jacqueline Juliano Coelho called the case one of excessive force and said her office would prove that Pettit punched Koons in the forehead, fractured his forehead, and knocked him unconscious. She said Koons then struck the back of his head, causing the fatal fracture.