Courtroom 601
On The Scene: Quinzell McCall's sentencing.
Sporting a gray prison-issue sweatshirt, wide-eyed Quinzell McCall listened to the grieving mother explain what life's been like since their her 17-year-old son, Robert Pierson, was murdered in cold blood around the corner from their Fairmount home. "I had to go to his high school graduation to pick up his cap and gown," mustered Patty Rounds through convulsive tears. "This has killed us. It's really just killed us."
Tissues were handed out to a dozen relatives of Pierson, who died last Easter, three weeks after being shot by a gun McCall smuggled out of his aunt's North Philadelphia home. Seated a few feet away in the gallery last Thursday were a half-dozen McCalls. No olive branches were extended; not a word was exchanged.
Defense attorney David Nenner pushed for the immediate release of the boy who, with five friends, took a loaded gun to a "white neighborhood" to play a game called "Who Can Catch the Most Bodies." The other kids flipped, but a jury found McCall not guilty of murder, after all, and he's already served a year and a half.
But prosecutor Carmen Lineberger pleaded with Judge Carolyn Engel Temin to put the kid away for more than a decade on the weapons offenses; he's been "smirking and smiling" the whole trial and, regardless of the verdict, the slaying left a neighborhood on racial edge.
McCall, who took the Fifth during trial, then stammered through an apology that felt scripted, with little sincerity, before Engel sent him off for three to eight years. Considering he could be in a six-month boot camp by summer, "he knows it could've been a lot worse," Nenner said in the elevator after Engel wrongfully denied a request for restitution from a Pierson family that can't afford a headstone.
The victim's relatives and friends soon gathered outside, still angry but somewhat relieved that their regular trips to the CJC were finally over. "Six kids were involved and nobody is going to be charged with the murder," said a frustrated uncle. "But it's OK. He'll have his day. Every dog does."
The McCalls then breezed through the revolving door. One aunt, who scoffed while Patty testified, threw her hands out wide, yelled "Cheese!" and offered a Daily News photographer an ear-to-ear grin. Then, after McCall's sister yelled, "Free my brother!" they walked off toward City Hall laughing, smiling and yelling back at the CJC through the rain.
A few minutes later, Patty was asked where she wanted to go. "To Robert's grave," she said.
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Stage Left
The Deciders
The Gravel Pit
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