Jury Deliberations Begin In Trial Of Man Accused Of Stabbing Philly Councilman
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The jury is beginning deliberations in the trial of a man accused of stabbing Councilman David Oh.
Jurors got the judge's instructions Wednesday and will resume weighing the verdict on Thursday.
The jury must weigh the credibility of two alibi witnesses who say defendant Shawn Yarbray was with them at the time that Councilman Oh was stabbed outside his West Philadelphia home during a botched robbery attempt in May.
But the main issue is Oh's identification of Yarbray.
Yarbray's attorney made much of different wording used in descriptions of the suspect -- scruffy beard versus thin beard, for example, or 5-foot-7 versus 5-foot-8.
In closing arguments, he told the jury this should create reasonable doubt. The prosecutor countered that Oh has never wavered in his identification of Yarbray as the man who approached him as he unloaded his car after a long day of work.
She also sought to undermine Yarbray's alibi witnesses because they didn't come forward immediately when Yarbray was arrested. The defense objected to that argument, and at one point moved for a mistrial, but the judge overruled him.
