A North Philadelphia probationer free just 10 days was found guilty Thursday of first-degree murder in the August 2012 killing of Philadelphia Police Officer Moses Walker.
Rafael Jones, 25, was found guilty after a four-day nonjury trial before Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart.
Minehart found that Jones was the gunman who with Chancier McFarland accosted, robbed and shot the 19-year-veteran officer as he walked to a bus stop after his night shift as turnkey in North Philadelphia's 22d Police District.
Jones, a tall, lanky balding man stood impassively besides lawyer Michael Coard as Minehart announced guilty verdicts on murder, robbery, conspiracy and three firearm counts.
Not so, Jones' relatives.
"I love you, Ralph," cried one.
"This too shall pass," echoed several others.
Coard said he would appeal, citing purported errors by the judge allowing cellphone and video evidence Coard said was "not properly authenticated."
The first-degree murder verdict carries a mandatory life prison term without parole but it could have been worse.
Jones had agreed to the nonjury trial if the District Attorney's Office did not seek the death penalty.
Despite the mandatory sentence, Minehart ordered a presentence and mental health assessment for Jones before a formal sentencing hearing on March 6.
That hearing will give Walker's relatives and fellow officers a chance to make public victim-impact statements.
The 40-year-old officer's mother, Wayne Lipscomb, said she would.
"Every time I spoke to Moses, Moses greeted me with, 'Hey, beautiful,' " Lipscomb recalled after the verdict. "I don't get to hear that anymore. I don't get to hear, 'Mom, it's restaurant week, pick out a restaurant.' "
Lipscomb said her son's death is the "nightmare I'm living the rest of my life. . . . I shouldn't have to be in here wearing this memorial T-shirt. None of us should have to be here today. We don't need a bigger courtroom. We don't. We need the senseless shooting to cease."
Assistant District Attorney Brian Zarallo called Walker a "credit to the badge and a credit to his community. This was a senseless, despicable act."
On Aug. 18, 2012, Walker left the police station at 17th Street and Montgomery Avenue about 5:30 a.m. He was dressed in civilian clothes, shorts, athletic jacket and baseball cap, and was carrying a backpack and wearing earphones. Walker was targeted, McFarland testified, because he looked like a student from nearby Temple University - "an easy mark."
McFarland, 21, pleaded guilty and testified against Jones in a plea deal with prosecutors in exchange for a 20- to 40-year prison term.
McFarland testified that Jones shot Walker after the officer reached for a weapon.
After Walker collapsed at Cecil B. Moore Avenue at Woodstock Street, McFarland said he grabbed the officer's iPod and earphones before taking off.
In closing arguments, Coard called McFarland a liar - and the actual shooter.
Coard noted that McFarland supplied the gun, disposed of it after the shooting and was the only one to steal any of Walker's belongings.
"Isn't that convenient?" asked Coard, referring to McFarland testifying - the only witness to do so - that Jones shot Walker. "Doesn't that go against common sense?"
Coard called McFarland's plea deal and sentence "a Christmas present. That's outrageous even if he's telling the truth."
In his closing, Assistant District Attorney Jude Conroy acknowledged the deal with McFarland was a "deal with the devil" but added that he was the only person willing to testify about what happened that morning.
"Yes he's a corrupt, polluted source," Conroy added. "He's also the best friend of the defendant."
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