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发帖数: 901 | 1 A Philadelphia jury today found Edward Wilson - the West Philadelphia man
who killed his ex-girlfriend in 2009 and then blew off his face with a
shotgun in a failed suicide - guilty of third-degree murder.
The Common Pleas Court jury of six men and six women deliberated six hours
before delivering verdicts of third degree murder and possession of an
instrument of crime.
Judge Judge Rose Marie DeFino-Nastasi set sentencing for September 23.
Assistant District Attorney James Berardinelli estimated Wilson faces a
sentence of 22 1/2 to 45 years in prison.
Wilson, 57, was charged with the March 18, 2009 shooting of Antoinette
Austin, 26, about six months after he had a stroke and she ended their eight
-year relationship.
Austin, an aspiring cosmetician, was found dying on the edge of the golf
course in Cobbs Creek Park, in the 7500 block of Lansdowne Avenue. With her
last words, a police officer testified, Austin said Wilson shot her and told
them to go to his house in the first block of North Salford Avenue.
Wilson drove back to his house and held police outside almost two hours
before shooting himself in the face with the same 12-gauge shotgun he killed
Austin.
The blast removed Wilson's face below the eyes but he lived, his face
rebuilt by surgeons to created a semblance of a nose, cheeks and lower jaw.
During three days of testimony, which began Tuesday, defense attorney Thomas
Burke never contested the fact that Wilson killed Austin.
Instead, Burke focused on trying to convince the jury that the shooting was
a classic "crime of passion," not the premeditated first-degree murder
argued by Assistant District Attorney James Berardinelli.
Wilson did not testify though several character witnesses described him as a
peaceful, outgoing U.S. Army veteran whose personality underwent a dark
change after he had a debilitating stroke in 2008.
"He was in love with her and he was crazy because she was gone and she was
not coming back," Burke told the jury in his closing argument on Thursday.
Berardinelli told the jury in his closing that voluntary manslaughter did
not apply because Wilson shot Austin almost six months after she left him,
after he lured her into his car with a $10,000 check.
The check, which would have bounced, was later found in Austin's wallet.
Berardinelli argued that Wilson tried to cover his tracks after he left
Austin, calling her job to ask if she was there and later lied to a police
negotiator after he barricaded himself in his house.
"Antoinette Austin was a 26-year-old woman who did nothing more than to move
on with her life," Berardinelli said. "And because of that, Edward Wilson
took everything she had and everything she would ever have." | m**********n
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