Trial begins Monday for man accused in fatal hammer attack
NORRISTOWN » A Norristown man facing murder charges after he allegedly used a hammer to repeatedly strike another man in the head during an altercation appeared pleased with the jury that has been seated to weigh his fate.
“I feel pretty good,” Michael R. Bell said Friday as he was escorted by sheriff’s deputies from a Montgomery County courtroom after jury selection was completed for his trial.
A jury of nine women and three men was seated and will begin hearing testimony on Monday. The lawyers also selected two alternate jurors for the trial. Judge Thomas P. Rogers gave jurors preliminary instructions before dismissing them for the weekend.
On Monday, Deputy District Attorney Thomas W. McGoldrick, who is assisted by co-prosecutor Douglas Lavenberg, and defense lawyer John Walko will give their opening statements to the jury. The trial is expected to last about four days.
Bell, 35, of the 100 block of Schuylkill Avenue, is charged in connection with the Sept. 23, 2017, murder of 42-yearold Leroy McCray during an altercation inside Bell’s apartment.
Bell faces charges of first-, second-, and third-degree murder, robbery, possessing an instrument of crime and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.
If convicted of first-degree murder, an intentional killing, or second-degree murder, a killing committed during the course of another felony such as robbery, Bell faces a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment.
A conviction of third-degree murder, a killing committed with malice, carries a possible maximum sentence of 20 to 40 years in prison.
An investigation began about 8:13 p.m. when Norristown police responded to Bell’s apartment for a report of a dead body on the premises. Bell told arriving police there was a “dead guy in his apartment and blood everywhere,” according to the criminal complaint filed by county Detective William Mitchell and Norristown Detective Corporal Nicholas Dumas.
Bell, according to court documents, escorted police into his apartment where McCray’s body was found on the living room floor.
“A large amount of blood could be observed on the couch next to the body of McCray,” Mitchell and Dumas alleged in the arrest affidavit, adding detectives observed a traumatic wound to the right temple area of McCray’s head.
Detectives noted multiple angles of blood cast off around McCray’s body.
An autopsy by the Montgomery County Coroner’s office determined the cause of death was “multiple blunt force trauma to the head,” and the manner of McCray’s death was ruled a homicide.
During an initial interview by detectives, Bell claimed McCray had come to his apartment at 7 a.m. Bell claimed he left the apartment a short time later and spent most of the day in New Jersey and at a friend’s house in Norristown. Bell initially claimed when he returned to his apartment later that night he found McCray dead and he denied any role in the killing, according to court documents.
But after detectives confronted Bell about several inconsistencies in his story, he admitted to killing McCray.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, Bell recanted his earlier statement and said McCray came over to his apartment and was “acting weird.” Bell said he and McCray exchanged words and McCray pushed him. Bell told investigators he then retrieved the hammer and struck McCray on the left side of his head.
Bell told police he struck McCray a total of about four times and McCray fell to the floor, and eventually stopped breathing.