Trial begins in tot’s slaying

During his opening argument Monday, prosecutor Richard Sax warned the 16 jurors that they might want to eat a little less for breakfast during the next couple of weeks.

That was the courtroom’s first indication of how graphic and disturbing the pictures of murder victim Porchia Bennett would be.

The evidence came later that afternoon when autopsy photographs of the 3-year-old were flashed on a screen. Her body was so emaciated that bones protruded through the thin veil of skin covering her tiny body.

Medical Examiner Ian Hood testified that Porchia died of a combination of multiple beatings, asphyxiation and inanition (lack of strength due to malnutrition), neglect and abuse.

The next day in court, Sax introduced a chilling photograph of Porchia’s then-10-year-old sister. The child’s eyes were black and swollen shut – the rest of her face distorted and bruised.

Porchia and her three sisters – then 4, 6 and 10 – were found Aug. 17, 2003, inside their caregivers’ squalid apartment at 1705 S. Fifth St. The 3-year-old’s body was wedged between a wall and mattress. Common Pleas Judge Renee Cardwell Hughes issued an order forbidding the press from naming the surviving siblings.

Opening arguments began Monday in the trial of the so-called caregivers – Jerry Chambers, 32, and girlfriend Candice Geiger, 20. Tiffany Bennett, 29, who is Geiger’s sister and the victims’ mother, is also on trial.

Chambers – who previously had twice been ruled incompetent to stand trial – is charged with first-degree murder, rape, indecent assault, endangering the welfare of children and a slew of other offenses. Geiger is accused of third-degree murder, several counts of conspiracy and endangering the welfare of children. Bennett is charged with four counts of child endangerment and conspiracy for leaving her offspring in the couple’s care.

"Tiffany Anne Bennett 100 percent in the truest sense of the word abandoned those children," Sax told the jurors, adding that she paid Chambers $80 a week to keep her kids, who she rarely saw despite living blocks away.

THE CODEFENDANTS HAVE pleaded not guilty to the charges against them. Chambers is represented by high-profile Philadelphia defense attorney Charles P. Mirarchi 3d and co-counsel Norman Scott.

Geiger and Bennett are represented by Gerald Alston and Charles E. Dennis Sr., respectively.

Homicide Lt. Mike Morrin, who supervised the murder investigation, testified the first thing that hit him when he walked into the home was "the stench – a pungent urine mixed with wet dogs." The smell was worse in the small bedroom that the couple shared with the four siblings, Morrin said. Sax described the room as being smaller than the juror’s box.

Floors in the cramped apartment were so dirty – encrusted with dead cockroaches, flies and in some parts, feces – investigators’ shoes stuck to them, the lieutenant testified.

"The entire property was absolutely filthy," he said. Photos of the dwelling and of a child’s potty filled with urine and smeared with fecal matter were shown in court.

On the bedroom wall was posted a list of "Jerry’s Rules," with chores assigned to each sibling. Geiger was not immune to the orders to keep the bedroom and kitchen clean, scrub the walls, dump the potty every day and last but by no means least, "respect Jerry at all times or else face a good whipping."

During opening arguments, Sax detailed grim tales of abuse and neglect the four sisters suffered at the hands of Chambers and Geiger. The siblings were subjected to regular beatings with belts, extension cords and broomsticks, said Sax.

But when they were "really bad," punishments were even more grotesque. The girls would be locked in the couple’s basement with Chambers’ two pit bulls or whipped naked in a cold shower and then forced to stand in front of an air-conditioner unit, the prosecutor said. Sometimes they were forced to eat dog feces, he added.

"They were brutally beaten, whipped, scarred permanently – in the case of Porchia, over 100 percent of her body," Sax said, adding that Chambers also raped Porchia’s 10-year-old sister and had sexual contact with the 4- and 6- year-old girls.

On Porchia’s last night on earth, Chambers and Geiger were having sex with all four children present, said the prosecutor. When the couple saw Porchia looking at them, Chambers allegedly hurled the toddler across the room where she landed against the radiator, Sax said.

DISSECTING THE EVIDENCE, Chambers’ attorney Mirarchi said it is possible his client could have thrown the child, but more in an attempt to push her away. Porchia could easily have rolled off the bed and hit the radiator on her own, the attorney said.

The medical examiner testified that the child had no cuts on her head consistent with the impact Sax had described.

More than once, Mirarchi told the jurors that the prosecutor would "tug at your heartstrings" and even plunked a box of tissues on the ledge of the juror box.

The attorney then asked his client to stand and face the seven black and nine white jurors. "He’s gained about 80 pounds and his brain isn’t on crack anymore," Mirarchi said.

Blaming drugs for his client’s crimes, Mirarchi argued that Chambers’ first-degree murder rap should be reduced to third. According to state law, a person under the influence of drugs or alcohol "cannot form specific intent to kill because their thought process is so impaired," the attorney said.

"This isn’t a whodunit, ladies and gentlemen," he added. "We are going to ask you to return a verdict of third-degree murder. I’m not here to ask you to be sympathetic to Jerry Chambers. I’m here to ask you to follow the law."

Chambers’ attorney also promised to prove that his client did not rape Porchia’s 10-year-old sister.

Geiger’s attorney kept his comments brief, saying the burden of proof is on Sax.

"There’s no denying this case will tug at your heart. But I’m asking you to be fair and treat Candice Geiger with the same fairness you would want for yourself or your family members," Alston said.

Tiffany Bennett’s attorney called Chambers a monster that did horrible things to her children, but maintained his client’s innocence, stating she had no knowledge of the abuse nor did she participate in the abuse.

"She is not joined at the hip with the other two," Dennis said.

The attorney claimed that Chambers’ drug abuse and the beatings started long after his client entrusted her children in his care and said Geiger was not living there in the beginning. He painted the picture not of a neglectful woman, as Sax had done, but of one who worked a double shift at a local factory to provide for her kids.

The trial is expected to last two to three weeks. The commonwealth will present testimony from Porchia’s three sisters on videotape to spare the girls from facing the defendants.