Trial Ordered In Alleged Prostitution Murder Of Chesco Man

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - A 23-year-old man whom authorities describe as a transgender prostitute has been ordered held for trial for the bizarre and sadistic murder of a Chester County man inside a center city hotel last October.

Patrick Brady, 49, a husband and father, was found dead inside room 812 of the Omni Hotel, 4th and Chestnut Streets, by firefighters responding to an arson fire in the room just hours after he and another person, wearing women's clothing, arrived at the hotel (see related story).

Brady suffered burns, but that's not what killed him. Prosecutor Edward Cameron says Brady was strangled and beaten so badly that the medical examiner found Brady was literally beaten to a pulp, allegedly by defendant Herman Burton (see previous story).

"It's clear from the defendant's statement and surveillance pictures that they went in together," says Cameron.  "What actually happened up in the hotel room is not clear, because the defendant minimized what he did in this case.  He said he simply flailed his arms about, and that clearly is not true because this man  had not only a broken neck but broken ribs, lacerations, and bruises on practically every part of his body."

Burton remains in custody while awaiting trial.

Reported by Tony Hanson, KYW Newsradio 1060.