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Demo Contractor Set To Go On Trial In Fatal Center City Building Collapse

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A demolition contractor charged with murder after a building collapse killed six people inside a Center City Salvation Army store is set to go on trial in Philadelphia.

Jury selection begins Tuesday in the trial of 51-year-old Griffin Campbell.

Campbell's lawyer insists that his client is being made a scapegoat in the 2013 collapse that also buried 13 survivors in rubble.

Investigators accuse Campbell of leaving a towering wall brick wall unsupported before it collapsed on the adjacent one-story store.

A subcontractor has pleaded guilty in the case and could testify against Campbell.

Campbell is charged with third-degree murder in the deaths.

The building owner who took his cut-rate bid for the job has not been charged.

Victims' lawyers accuse the city of lax oversight of demolition work.

(© Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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