Coatesville teen acquitted of murder

WEST CHESTER » A Common Pleas Court jury has acquitted a Coatesville teenager of the murder of a Mexican immigrant living in the city during a botched robbery, but convicted a co-defendant who authorities contended orchestrated the attempted crime.

Dajon Rowe was found not guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, robbery, aggravated assault, and conspiracy by the panel late Friday night. He was found guilty of a single count of persons not to possess a firearm, a felony.

The panel of nine women and three men deliberated for about six hours before returning to

Judge Patrick Carmody’s courtroom to deliver its verdict about 10 p.m. It had heard five days of testimony and argument in the case, which involved the shooting death of a 40-year-old man who the prosecution said was targeted by Rowe and four others for robbery because of his nationality.

Rowe, a 19-year-old city man who was 17 at the time of the shooting, was returned to Chester County Prison after the verdict to await sentencing later by Carmody. The charge carries with it a possible maximum of 10 years in a state prison.

Meanwhile, the same jurors found Demetrius Joseph, who had allegedly convinced the four co-conspirators that they should “do a lick” — that is, commit a robbery — as they walked the street of the city after midnight on an October night in 2015.

Joseph, 22, of Coatesville was found guilty of seconddegree murder, third-degree murder, robbery, and conspiracy. He now faces a mandatory life sentence without parole for the second-degree murder conviction.

Neither man testified during the trial.

Rowe’s attorney, Steven Jarmon of Malvern, had contended during his closing argument Friday that his client was not involved in the robbery at all, much less being the gunman who fired the shot that killed Juan Antonio Jimenez-Ramos. Rather, he implicated a friend of Rowe’s who had pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and testified for the prosecution.

“The people who did this deserve to be punished,” Jarmon told the jury. “But that is not Dajon Rowe. The evidence is overwhelming that Tyler Adams is the shooter in this case.”

Adams, 18, of Coatesville, pleaded guilty earlier this year and is serving a sentence of 23 to 46 years in state prison. He told the jury during his testimony that he had given Rowe a 9mm semiautomatic handgun and a mask as they approached the scene of the attempted robbery and stood by as Rowe fired a shot into Jimenez-Ramos’ chest, and then into the leg of a second man.

Jarmon said the evidence pointing to Adams was his admission of committing other robberies, a description of the attacker given by the surviving victim of the robbery, and DNA found on the mask that authorities tied to the crime. Adams also was the person who acknowledged having the gun prior to the shooting.

He attacked the credibility of Adams and the prosecution’s other star witness — co-defendant Gayelynn “Chris” Mansfield — as unreliable, since they had been given lenient sentences by the prosecution in return for their testimony against Rowe and Joseph.

Deputy District Attorney Carlos Barraza, who led the prosecution with Assistant District Attorney Cynthia Morgan and Coatesville Detective Kevin Campbell, told the jury in his closing argument, however, that the testimony of both Adams and Mansfield was backed up by other physical evidence in the case, including video surveillance footage from across the city that showed all of the defendants — Joseph, Rowe, Adams, Mansfield, and Adams’ older brother Steven Adams — in the moments leading up to the shooting together.

“Life is precious,” Barraza said. “Only two people can give it to you. But unfortunately, there is an entire world of people who can take it from you.”

Joseph’s attorney, Stuart Crichton of West Chester, contended that his client, while present at the time of the shooting, had not participated in it or the planed robbery, and could not be held liable for what the others involved did. He argued that the testimony of Tyler Adams and Mansfield should be discarded because it came from “corrupt and polluted” sources.

But Barraza was able to convince the jurors that Joseph had been part of the plan from the beginning, and that his actions made him as responsible for Jimenez-Ramos’s death as the person who fired the shot. “This is felony murder. Textbook felony murder,” the veteran prosecution declared.

According to the description of the events surrounding the Oct. 4, 2015, shooting put on the record by Barraza at earlier hearings, the five men conspired to rob a group of four men who were outside a home on North Fourth Avenue. Barraza said Steven Adams, Mansfield, and Joseph, were standing on North Fifth Avenue between 1:30 a.m. and 2 a.m. near the Coatesville Public Library where they were approached by Tyler Adams, and his friend Rowe. The Adamses and Rowe were all juveniles at the time.

The five all began walking north on Fourth Avenue when Joseph allegedly suggested that they “do a lick,” meaning rob someone. As they walked north of Fleetwood Avenue, they saw the men sitting on a porch outside a house in the 100 block. They walked to the end of the block, and agreed among themselves to turn around and rob the men.

They chose the men, said Barraza, because they appeared to be Mexican immigrants who likely had cash on them from their work as day laborers, and who would be unlikely to go to police with information about their robbery because of their assumed illegal status.

Tyler Adams allegedly gave the handgun and a mask he had with him to Rowe, who put on the mask so that he would not be recognized by the men, some of whom could recognize him, he told the others. When they reached the porch, Mansfield punched one of the men while Rowe drew the handgun and pointed it at Jiminez-Ramos, who stood up to try to calm the situation. Rowe then fired a shot that struck Ramos in the chest, Barraza said.

He then turned the weapon on another of the men, Juan Antonio Sanchez-Gutierrez and shot him in the leg.

After the shots were fired, the five all ran from the scene. They were arrested later, with police finding the murder weapon in Rowe’s bedroom.

Jiminez-Ramos died at Brandywine Hospital around 2:45 a.m. that morning.