Trial Ordered For South Philadelphia Man In New Year's Murder of Elderly Neighbor
By Tony Hanson
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A 53-year-old South Philadelphia man with a previous murder conviction has been ordered held for trial in the murder of a 77-year-old neighbor -- a tragedy that authorities say grew out of a decade-long feud between two families.
The victim, Joseph Testa, was stabbed and died in the first hour of the new year, making him Philadelphia's first murder victim of 2012.
Prosecutor Dennis McCloskey says Testa had celebrated the new year with generations of his family, then while outside for fireworks.
According to investigators, he tried to be peacemaker in a dispute between his nephew and defendant Santo Mancuso, when Mancuso pulled out a knife and stabbed Testa in the chest, then stabbed him a second time.
"They went down to Shunk Street so they would have a better view of the fireworks than they would outside their house," says McCloskey. "And this problem their neighbors had with them started, and the defendant resolved it by stabbing a 77-year-old man."
The defendant was expected to plead not guilty. The defense attorney says he's still waiting for "discovery" -- evidence from the prosecution -- but he says Mancuso was attacked and suffered a head injury on the night in question. He declined comment beyond that.
