A break for rapper in slaying

Philadelphia Daily News (PA)

A crowd of roughly two dozen supporters of rapper Cassidy – some wearing T-shirts with his picture on it – cheered and clapped yesterday when Municipal Judge Marsha Neifield ruled that prosecutors did not have enough evidence to try Cassidy for first-degree murder.

Neifield upheld lesser murder charges against Cassidy, whose real name is Barry Reese, ruling that the baby-faced rapper could stand trial for third-degree murder for the April 15 gun battle behind the rapper's rowhouse on Provident Street near Limekiln Pike, in Cedarbrook. The shooting ended in the death of 22-year-old Desmond Hawkins and the wounding of Daniel Irvin, 22, and Bobby Hoyle, 21.Cassidy, who looks younger than his 23 years, showed no reaction to Neifield's ruling. Wearing a dark suit slightly too large for his small frame, he kept his eyes straight ahead, focused on Neifield.

Neifield set Cassidy's bail at $2.5 million but barred him from posting 10 percent bond for his release until Sept. 6. This will give prosecutors time to appeal Neifield's ruling.

Common Pleas Judge Benjamin Lerner could reinstate the first-degree charges, which upon conviction carry a mandatory sentence of life in prison or possibly the death penalty.

Third-degree murder charges carry a mandatory sentence of 20-40 years in prison.

Prosecutors had success with an earlier appeal in Cassidy's case when Lerner, in June, revoked the rapper's bail just hours after Municipal Judge Teresa Deni set bail at $500,000. Bail is rarely granted in murder cases.

Assistant District Attorney Deborah Watson-Stokes said she was confident the first-degree charges would be reinstated. She pointed to evidence presented yesterday by Police Officer Leonard Johnson, a ballistics expert, who said police at the scene had collected evidence of at least 79 bullets fired from at least five guns, including AK-47-style assault weapons.

Johnson said only one of the guns had been fired from the van in which the victims – Hawkins, Irvin and Hoyle – and another man had been riding when the shooting began.

The four other guns, Johnson said, were outside the van.

Watson-Stokes said this was evidence of an ambush by Cassidy and his friends.

She said Cassidy, who had instructed the men in the van to meet him behind his house, was waiting there with at least three other people, planning to fire on the van.

“They were prepared for a shootout,” she said. “Whoever is prepared will have the upper hand. They are not going to be injured.”

The men in the van, she said, were “caught off guard.”

Cassidy's lawyer, Fred Perri, had a different read on the evidence.

“Because of some prior incident between one of the friends of [Hawkins] and someone who had been with Cassidy, they decided to come to Cassidy's house armed with weapons and start firing at whoever he was with,” Perri said.

Perri said there was no evidence that Cassidy had fired any of the guns and noted that at a hearing last month, a government witness testified that the men in the van had fired the first shot.

An arrest warrant has been issued for one of the other men suspected of firing at the van. No other arrests have been made.*

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