S. Phila. man held for trial in fatal stabbing on New Year's

At 12:11 a.m. Jan. 1, the New Year's fireworks were just ending.

In the 2500 block of South Jessup Street in South Philadelphia, they were about to begin.

There, a neighbors' feud so old that people couldn't remember how it had started reignited and ended in the first homicide of 2012 - the stabbing death of Joseph Testa, 77.

The feud has "been going on for years," Genevieve Aleiso testified at a Municipal Court hearing Wednesday where Santo Mancuso, 53, a neighbor who had already served one prison term for murder, was held for trial in Testa's slaying.

Aleiso, who said her sister was married to Testa's brother James Sr., told Judge James M. DeLeon that she was on her front porch when she heard the sounds of an argument and saw members of the Testa family and the Mancuso clan running back from Shunk Street, where they had walked to watch the fireworks.

Aleiso said she watched as Mancuso walked up the block and "reached behind his back" as he prepared to confront James Testa Jr. in the space between two parked cars.

Mancuso brandished the knife and tried to stab James Testa, Aleiso testified, but Testa hit him and knocked him to the street. At this point, Joseph Testa came out of his house in an apparent peacemaking effort and walked over to his nephew.

Aleiso said Mancuso stood up and again tried to stab James Testa. Testa dodged, and the blade went into Joseph Testa's chest.

"Joe Testa was there," Aleiso said, "and [Mancuso] stabbed Joe twice."

In questioning Aleiso, defense attorney Gregory J. Pagano suggested the stabbing was part of Mancuso's botched effort to defend himself after he had been decked by James Testa.

Mancuso was hospitalized for three days with a blood clot on the brain, Pagano said.

He argued to the judge that Mancuso should not be held for trial on any charge more serious than third-degree murder.

But Assistant District Attorney Dennis McCloskey said the fact that Mancuso stabbed the older and smaller Testa twice in the chest was enough to infer premeditation and to justify trial on first-degree murder.

DeLeon agreed, ordering Mancuso held for trial on a general count of murder.

Afterward, Pagano said that, because of Mancuso's prior murder conviction, he would face a mandatory life sentence, even if a jury found him guilty of third-degree murder.

Mancuso was found guilty of third-degree murder in a 1993 nonjury trial in the July 1990 slaying of a prostitute found shot to death in a South Philadelphia alley. Mancuso was sentenced to a six- to 12-year prison term.

The feud that ended in the New Year's killing continues, Aleiso testified.

After the slaying and Mancuso's arrest, Aleiso said, she heard Michael Guagenti - who is married to Mancuso's sister Lisa - threaten members of the Testa family.

"He said, 'Youse are all dead. I know people,' " Aleiso testified.

DeLeon ordered both families to stay away from each other and threatened arrest if anything happened.

Sheriff's deputies then separately escorted the two sides from the courtroom to the elevators to street level.