{"id":6594,"date":"2013-07-18T22:16:53","date_gmt":"2013-07-19T02:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=6594"},"modified":"2013-07-18T22:16:53","modified_gmt":"2013-07-19T02:16:53","slug":"murder-jury-to-resume-deliberations-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=6594","title":{"rendered":"Murder jury to resume deliberations Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phila. man could receive death penalty for 2006 hit on Coatesville barber<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

By Kathleen Brady Shea<\/span><\/strong>, Managing Editor, The Times<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Eric<\/a>

Eric Coxry, 35, of Philadelphia, is accused of gunning down a Coatesville barber in 2006 for money.<\/p><\/div>\n

After the jury in the capital murder case against Eric \u201cStroda\u201d Coxry had been deliberating for nearly seven hours, Chester County Judge David F. Bortner dismissed it for the night a little after 7 p.m. on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Coxry, 35, of Philadelphia, is one of four men charged in connection with the fatal shooting of Jonas L. \u201cSonny\u201d Suber, 33, of Coatesville, on Oct. 21, 2006. Suber, who owned a Coatesville barbershop, was struck by eight bullets after he answered the front door of his home in the 400 block of Walnut Street about 9:15 a.m.<\/p>\n

Before dismissing the jury, the judge explained that the panel of five men and seven women had asked to see three letters referenced during the four days of testimony; however, since only small segments of the letters had been admitted into evidence, they needed to be redacted. Bortner said a quick experiment with a black marker indicated that the redaction needed to be done on a computer, and he did not want the panel to have to wait, \u00a0having already put in a long day.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Thursday, the jury heard closing arguments from Coxry\u2019s attorney, Brenda Jones, and Deputy District Attorney Ron Yen.<\/p>\n

Yen said the evidence supported the fact that Duron \u201cGotti\u201d Peoples, 35, had sought revenge against Suber because he had slept with Peoples\u2019 girlfriend. Peoples directed Shamone \u201cKadof\u201d Woods, 31, of Coatesville, to have Suber killed. In response, Woods hired Coxry to pull the trigger while Jeremiah \u201cYoung\u201d Bush, 26, of Philadelphia, drove the getaway car, Yen said. Bush was convicted of first-degree murder in May and received a life sentence; Peoples and Woods are awaiting trial.<\/p>\n

Multiple prosecution witnesses linked Coxry to the homicide. One of them, who said she passed Coxry leaving the murder scene and later picked him out of a photo lineup, had no ties to any of the participants, making her unbiased, Yen said.<\/p>\n

Another witness, April Brown, who described herself as a longtime friend of the defendant, testified that she had followed Suber\u2019s Cadillac the night before the murder at Coxry\u2019s direction. The next day, she testified that she and Coxry were at a friend\u2019s house when two men knocked at the door, prompting Coxry to hide in a closet. After he realized the men weren\u2019t police officers, he came out, she testified.<\/p>\n

Asked whether the subject of murder came up, Brown said Coxry told her \u201cthat he had to take him [Suber] out \u2026 it was either him or me.\u201d She also testified that Coxry told her Woods paid Coxry for the hit. Pressed by Yen about whether she wanted to testify, Brown said she appeared only because she was subpoenaed. Minutes later, as she exited the courtroom, she wiped a tear from her face.<\/p>\n

Jones argued that both women were tainted. The witness who allegedly saw Coxry exiting Suber\u2019s house said he had green or hazel eyes, which is inaccurate and can\u2019t be explained away because the sun was shining in his face, Jones said. She suggested the jury should dismiss Brown\u2019s testimony because she admitted frequent drug use, which would have impaired her memory.<\/p>\n

Other prosecution witnesses had similar baggage, Jones said. She cited the testimony of Suber\u2019s wife, Bashera Grove, who didn\u2019t pick Coxry out of a photo lineup until after she had misidentified Victor DeValia as the triggerman. During the trial, Grove attributed the mistake to her emotional state the day after the homicide, admitting that she knew DeValia had been with Peoples, whom she described as her husband\u2019s only enemy.<\/p>\n

Jones also disparaged the testimony of Clarence Milton, who acknowleged making a deal with federal prosecutors in exchange for his cooperation. \u201cHe may do 10 instead of life,\u201d Jones said, calling the arrangement \u201ca sweetheart deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, Jones argued that no forensic evidence, such as DNA or fingerprints, linked Coxry to the murder. \u201cMr. Coxry didn\u2019t kill anybody,\u201d she added. \u201cHe\u2019s an innocent man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yen countered that a hitman would likely make sure he didn\u2019t leave evidence, and he said the witnesses independently corroborated each other. He also pointed to letters Coxry wrote from prison to Brown as well as his cousin. In them, Coxry expresses concern about what others might tell police. \u201cIf nobody don\u2019t talk it\u2019s going to get beat,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

The letters turned out to be \u201cbetter than a confession\u201d because no one can suggest \u201canyone put words in his mouth,\u201d Yen said. \u201cThere is no question that Mr. Suber was to be killed, and that Mr. Coxry was the one who was hired to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bortner asked the jury to resume deliberations on Friday at 8:30 a.m. If the jury finds Coxry guilty of first-degree murder, the penalty phase will begin to determine whether he should be sentenced to death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Phila. man could receive death penalty for 2006 hit on Coatesville barber By Kathleen Brady Shea, Managing Editor, The Times After the jury in the capital murder case against Eric \u201cStroda\u201d Coxry had been deliberating for nearly seven hours, Chester County Judge David F. Bortner dismissed it for the night a little after 7 p.m. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2523,2147,2148,2151,2501,2149,2150],"class_list":["post-6594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-brenda-jones","tag-deputy-district-attorney-ron-yen","tag-duron-gotti-peoples","tag-eric-stroda-coxry","tag-jeremiah-young-bush","tag-jonas-l-sonny-suber","tag-shamone-kadof-woods"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}