Quick Guilty Verdict in Senseless 2008 Murder at a Kensington Car Wash
By Tony Hanson
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A jury today deliberated just a matter of minutes before finding a 31-year-old Philadelphia man guilty of the execution-style murder of a 19-year-old man at a car wash in 2008.
The jury must now decide whether Omar Cash, who was on the run for other brutal crimes at the time, deserves the death penalty for the April 2008 murder of Maliek Brown.
And as it considers the penalty, the jury will hear about Cash's other barbaric crimes. He is already serving a life sentence for murdering another man in 2008 and repeatedly raping the man's fiancée.
Cash's violent past will be a so-called "aggravating" factor for the jury to consider.
The jury reported its verdict in this case in just about a half-hour. Philadelphia prosecutor Peter Lim says the car wash victim -- a working man with no record -- was unarmed, down on his hands and knees, and helpless when he was gunned down.
"He was shining his tires at a car wash in Kensington, and this defendant approached his from behind and executed him by shooting him in the back of the head," Lim tells KYW Newsradio. Throughout the trial, the motive for the shooting was not clear.
The evidence presented to the jury included surveillance video of the murder, played in slow motion.
