Robbery ended in death, but whose idea?

WEST CHESTER » The robbery was planned ahead of time to take place during a drug transaction between people who did not know one another, jurors in the case of two men accused in the shooting death of a Phoenixville teenager outside a borough Dunkin’ Donuts shop were told Tuesday.

But just who was setting up who was the subject of some dispute during opening statements by attorneys in the trial of Brian Keith “Redz” Corsey and John “Gotti” Ortiz-Carr being held at the Chester County Justice Center this week.

According to Assistant District Attorney John McCaul in his presentation for the prosecution, Corsey and Ortiz-Carr had worked out the scheme to rob the shooting victim and his older friend of a few ounces of marijuana so that a third man, Robert McCoy III, could get money to fix his broken-down car.

“These men had a plan to set up and rob a low-level weed dealer in Phoenixville, and they came prepared,” McCaul told the jury of seven men and five women hearing the case before Judge Allison Bell Royer. “They brought a car, they brought a gun, and they had the tools of the trade … strength in numbers.”

In the end, Corsey had shot and killed 15-yearold Jason Ortiz-Cameron, who had hooked up with the dealer, a 20-something hanger-on outside the doughnut shop on the south side of the borough, McCaul said.

But to defense attorney Jonathan Altschuler, who is representing Corsey, the robbers were not his client, McCoy, and Ortiz-Carr, but rather the drug dealer, Thomas Farrell, and the shooting victim himself. They had planned to lure the trio to the Dunkin’ Donuts,

then steal whatever cash they had on hand.

That was the “glitch” in the prosecution case, he told the panel during his opening statement in the first day of testimony for the pair’s trial on second-degree murder, robbery, and conspiracy charges. The fault for the shooting lay at the hands of Farrell, who Altschuler called a “scumbag” and “human garbage,” and the victim.

“It’s not a robbery,” the defense attorney said of the trio’s trip to Phoenixville from Pottstown, where McCoy and Ortiz-Carr lived. “They had no idea they were about to be confronted by Tom Farrell and his ‘boy,’ who was ‘strapped’ and ‘racked’” — meaning armed — “and ready to go.”

In his telling, Ortiz-Cameron was shot in the face through a robber’s mask while he and Corsey struggled over Ortiz-Cameron’s own weapon. McCaul’s opening statement would prove to be the high point of the prosecution’s case, he predicted. “It all goes downhill from here.”

On behalf of his client, Ortiz-Carr, West Chester attorney Alex Silow urged the jurors to look skeptically at the testimony from witnesses who he suggested had a bias to present events in the best light of the prosecution. There were independent accounts that could say that his client was aware of the alleged robbery scheme, or even that he was at the scene of the shooting that night, Silow said.

Corsey, 26, of Philadelphia, and Ortiz-Carr, 27,

of Pottstown, face the possibility of a life sentence without parole if they are found guilty of the seconddegree murder charge they both face. McCoy, the third defendant, has already pleaded guilty to third-degree murder charges in exchange for his cooperation in the investigation and his expected testimony against.

Testimony on Tuesday consisted of police descriptions of the murder scene and eyewitness accounts of the events of the night of the shooting by young people who were present and heard the shot ring out, but who did not necessarily see the fatal struggle between Corsey and Ortiz-Cameron.

The doughnut shop on Nutt Road is a “hangout” place for teens in the neighborhood, McCaul said in his opening, in which he tried to place Phoenixville for those on the jury.

The small town in northeastern Chester County lies just outside Valley Forge National park, along the banks of the Schuylkill River. An up-and-coming town with a newly vibrant downtown scene, it has few, if any, homicides year by year.

But on Dec. 27, 2017, McCoy set up a drug transaction with Farrell, whom he had contacted with on Snapchat, a social media platform. Before going to Phoenixville to complete the buy, McCoy met with Corsey and Ortiz-Carr to discuss robbing Farrell of whatever marijuana he had on him at the time of the deal, McCaul said.

Corsey agreed to let McCoy use his 2007 black Ford Focus, and the three drove from Pottstown, where McCoy and Ortiz-Carr lived, to Phoenixville. McCoy drove, while Ortiz-Carr was the front passenger and Corsey in the back seat.

Once there, they met with Farrell and OrtizCameron at the Dunkin’ Donuts in the 200 block of Nutt Road. The trio first circled the shop’s parking lot to make sure they were not being followed. Corsey tried to get Farrell and OrtizCameron to get inside the

car, but the two refused and walked away after showing Corsey the marijuana they had on them.

McCaul, in his opening, acknowledged that Farrell and Ortiz-Cameron had discussed robbing the man Farrell had connected with of his money, “hitting a lick” in street lingo. But they seemed to show reluctance to go through with it when they saw that McCoy had come with others.

At some point, Corsey got out of the car, as did McCoy. Corsey confronted Ortiz-Cameron while the other man went to speak with McCoy at the side of the car. The two squared off to fight as McCoy told Farrell, “You don’t want to go over there,” meaning toward where Corsey and Ortiz-Cameron were standing.

Corsey then pulled out a small semi-automatic handgun, cocked it, pointed it at Ortiz-Cameron and began to rifle through the teenager’s pockets. He then fired a single shot and Ortiz-Cameron fell to the ground, mortally wounded, according to the prosecution.

But Altschuler described the struggle as between Ortiz-Cameron and Corsey over the gun the 15-year-old had been given by Farrell to commit the robbery. “He was shot through his own robber mask with his own gun,” he proclaimed.

The three men jumped back in the car, with Ortiz-Carr driving, and went back to the house in Pottstown where they had initially planned the robbery. They split up the marijuana they had stolen and began to dispose of evidence related to the murder before McCoy fled to Philadelphia.

Witnesses were able to tell investigators about who had committed the murder and what happened, and McCoy was arrested by Phoenixville Detective Nicholas Natale in April 2018. Corsey was apprehended after a standoff with police at a location outside Atlanta in May 2018.

“These men had a plan to set up and rob a low-level weed dealer in Phoenixville, and they came prepared.” — Assistant District Attorney John McCaul