Guilty verdicts in teen’s murder
Defendants face life without parole for killing 15-year-old outside Phoenixville Dunkin’
WEST CHESTER » Two men have been found guilty of the murder of a Phoenixville teenager outside a borough Dunkin’ Donuts three years ago during what the prosecution maintained was a drug-related robbery gone awry.
A Chester County Common Pleas jury hearing the case against Brian Keith “Redz” Corsey, the alleged gunman in the fatal shooting, and John “Gotti” Ortiz-Carr, an accomplicewho drove the getaway car, returned with their verdict late Tuesday night, finding themen guilty of seconddegree murder, robbery, theft and conspiracy. Corsey was also found guilty of a firearms offense.
The panel of seven men and five women de liberated from about 5:30 p.m. until 10 p.m. before returning with its verdict before a socially distanced courtroom. Corsey, 26, of Philadelphia had to be admonished by Judge Allison Bell Royer after he complained that the verdict was taking the court clerk too long to read.
The finding of guilt for second-degree murder, known as felony murder, means that Corsey and Ortiz-Carr, 27, of Pottstown, face a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Themen were returned to Chester County Prison to await formal sentencing before Royer sometime later this year.
Killed in the confrontation in December 2017
was 15-year-old Jayson Ortiz-Cameron, a student at Phoenixville Area High School who was hanging out with friends at the doughnut shop when he was approached by an older man who frequented the store to help him “hit a lick”— that is, rob someone who was going to buy marijuana from the man.
When the verdict was announced, the victim’s mother, Adrienne K. Cameron, exclaimed “Thank God!” And began crying, according to observers.
Ortiz-Cameron died after he became engaged in a confrontation with Corsey when he and the drug dealer, Thomas Farrell, tried to back out of the deal because the situation looked “sketchy.” As they struggled, Ortiz-Cameron was killed by a single shot from a 9mm semi-automatic handgun to his head. He died at the scene.
The prosecution was led by Deputy District Attorney Carlos Barraza and Assistant District Attorney JohnMcCaul. The case was investigated by Phoenixville Detective Nicholas Natale and Chester County Detective Joseph Walton.
The defense contested the prosecution’s version of events, with the attorney for Corsey, Jonathan
Altschuler of Philadelphia, contending that Ortiz-Cameron and Farrell had planned an armed robbery of theman with whom Farrell had set up the deal. Altshuler suggested that instead of being shot by Corsey, Ortiz-Cameron was killed in a struggle with an unknown man and died of a self-inflicted gun wound. The jury rejected that version of events.
Authorities contended that on Dec. 27, 2017, Corsey, Ortiz-Carr and a third man, Robert McCoy III, traveled to Phoenixville tomeet up with a marijuana dealer none had ever met. McCoy, who testified on behalf of the prosecution, said he had arranged the deal in order to steal the drugs from the man he had arranged to meet outside the doughnut shop.
Corsey agreed to let McCoy use his 2007 black Ford Focus, and the three drove from Pottstown, where McCoy and OrtizCarr lived, to Phoenixville. McCoy drove, while OrtizCarr 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.
In his closing argument, Barraza took the jurors through ameticulous, stepby-step re-enactment of the crime, from its beginnings to the end, using both audio recordings of interviews and video surveillance footage from inside and outside the doughnut shop.
Of Ortiz-Cameron’s behavior inside the shop, Barraza said, “He’s acting like a 15-year-old kid who’s about to get really in over his head.” Farrell had tried to recruit others among those who hung out at the shop, but all declined until Ortiz-Cameron accepted.
As the jurors watched on video, they saw Farrell and Ortiz-Cameron walk outside the shop and then realize that there were three men, not one, in the car, which had a back window blacked out with plastic, and they began to back away from the deal.
But Corsey got out of the car, as did McCoy to try to get the two back to the car and complete the drug robbery. Corsey confronted Ortiz-Cameron at the rear of the shop, while Farrell and McCoy faced off 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 OrtizCameron were standing.
Corsey then pulled out a small semi-automatic handgun, cocked it, pointed it at Ortiz-Cameron and began to rif le through the teenager’s pockets. He then fired a single shot and Ortiz-Cameron fell to the ground, mortally wounded, according to the prosecution.
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, Ga., in May 2018