Killer gets life term in ex-girlfriend's North Philadelphia stabbing death

A police witness called the crime scene "like something in a horror movie."

And when police broke in the bathroom door in the North Philadelphia apartment, witnesses said, Solomon Carter dropped the eight-inch bread knife to the floor near his dying ex-girlfriend, raised his hands, and said: "I'm done, I'm done. It's over."

That was three years ago. On Tuesday, Carter, 31, touched off an explosion of courtroom emotion when he told a Philadelphia judge he stabbed Karimah Ballard in the throat "by accident" and said police were "lying through their teeth."

"I don't see how the evidence added up to the way it added up to, but it don't seem right," Carter told Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart before he was sentenced to life in prison without parole in the Oct. 12, 2008, slaying.

Minehart found Carter guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced him to the mandatory life term after a 11/2-day nonjury trial.

Minehart also found Carter guilty on a weapons charge and on one count of aggravated assault for a superficial stab wound he inflicted on Ballard's friend Gabrielle Kirven, 30, during the chaotic 3 a.m. attack at Ballard's apartment in the 1600 block of North 16th Street in North Philadelphia.

Carter's statement stunned Ballard's family and friends, some of whom began sobbing and others swearing at him.

Carter did not testify, and his comments were a non sequitur, following his condolences to Ballard's family.

Carter's mother, Jessica M. Carter, also had just completed a tearful, eloquent apology to the Ballards and said her son knew he killed someone and "justice must be served."

Earlier, in victim-impact testimony, Ballard's mother, Annette Ballard, told Minehart she knew her daughter had faults: "She made a bad choice and a big mistake, but she should have been allowed to walk away from that, not get murdered over that."

Witnesses testified that Carter had got out of jail two days earlier in an unrelated incident and was coming to Ballard's apartment to retrieve personal items.

When Carter arrived about 2:30 a.m., Kirven said, he was drunk and high on PCP.

Kirven, who said Ballard had asked her to be there as moral support during Carter's visit, testified that Carter erupted in rage when Ballard ordered him to leave.

"He was crazed. I had never seen him like that," Kirven said, adding that she knew Ballard and Carter about 10 years.

Kirven testified that after trying to stop Carter from strangling Ballard, she and her three young children and Ballard's two young sons ran from the ground-floor apartment screaming in terror as Carter chased them.

Police witnesses, who arrived as Kirven and the children fled, testified that Carter, an arm around Ballard's neck, dragged her into the bathroom.

Witnesses said they heard Ballard screaming for help and Carter yelling that he would kill her, that police would kill him, and that "we're going to die together."

When police broke in, they found that Carter had stabbed Ballard in the throat, severing her carotid artery, and the bathroom was steeped in blood.

Assistant District Attorney Christine Wechsler said her office originally sought the death penalty against Carter but withdrew the request when it learned Carter has schizophrenia and a long history of mental health, drug, and alcohol problems.

Defense attorneys Wendy Ramos and Roger Schradling then agreed to waive Carter's right to a jury trial and let Minehart hear the case.