Montgomery County prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for a Lansdale man who allegedly shot and killed two people outside a Norristown bar last summer.
Khailyl Chambers, 19, appeared before Montgomery County Judge Thomas P. Rogers on Thursday afternoon for an arraignment and entered a not guilty plea to murder charges.
The defendant, reportedly distraught about his cousin Ryan Banjoman’s death in a motorcycle accident on the Dannehower Bridge in Norristown, allegedly shot and killed 31-year-old Bruce Palmer and 22-year-old Jackie Scott minutes after the two left the Roo House Tavern around 2 a.m. on Saturday, June 27, 2009, according to court papers.
After the brief hearing, Chambers’ defense lawyer William R. McElroy explained the plea, and his client signed court paperwork before being escorted from the courtroom.
When Palmer and Scott came out of the Willow Street bar that night, Chambers allegedly walked over and shot the Wyndmoor woman twice in the head, then turned on the Norristown man and fired at him several times. In all, the gunman fired a dozen shots from the 9mm handgun.
To avoid being hit by gunfire, Palmer crawled under a Dodge Durango parked on the street, but he suffered bullet wounds in his cheek, neck, upper arm, thigh, leg and hip, according to authorities.
The couple was transported to Hahnemann University Hospital for treatment; both later died there.
“It’s a particularly vicious killing of two people who just walked out of a bar after a night out,” said Assistant District Attorney Thomas McGoldrick, who is prosecuting the case with Assistant DA Abigail Silverman.
“The defendant literally walked up and executed them on the street,” he alleged.
Four days before the double homicide, Chambers’ cousin was killed after she was flung off a speeding motorcycle that hit a car on the Dannehower Bridge. Banjoman hit the bridge’s railing and fell into the Schuylkill River.
Julian Mansfield, who was operating the motorcycle, admitted causing her death; however, prosecutors don’t believe Chambers ever sought revenge against Mansfield. Instead, Chambers allegedly vented his anger on two strangers.
“To me, the motive still remains unclear,” McGoldrick said.
Chambers is also facing attempted murder charges in a separate shooting case that wounded a man in Norristown.
McGoldrick said Montgomery County DA Risa Vetri Ferman evaluated the case and determined there were several aggravating factors that warranted the death penalty, which include the two homicides, the use of an illegal firearm and that Chambers’ created a grave risk to others who were out on Willow Street that night just after the bar closed.
Surveillance camera video showed Chambers walk across the street to the sidewalk outside the tavern an hour before the murders. According to the criminal complaint, Chambers met two men for a short time, then the three split up.
The defendant and one of his companions from the video were both standing near the victims just before shooting, prosecutors allege, then they ran from the scene.
While Chambers was being held in Montgomery County Prison for an October 2009 shooting, he reportedly bragged about a double murder, according to an inmate. And the defendant, who had lived with his mother on Berwick Place in Lansdale before his arrest, allegedly told a friend he had “put that work in,” meaning he had killed the couple, according to authorities.
The murder trial is scheduled for April.
http://timesherald.com/articles/2010/08/27/news/doc4c774307ab3ff925449088.txt
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