Shortly before 5 p.m. on April 2, 2011, police responded to a report of a shooting at the Busti Housing Project at 46th and Market Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They found a black Pontiac Bonneville in the street with the engine running. The front passenger window was shattered. In the passenger seat was 28-year-old Quince Morant, dead of multiple gunshot wounds. In the driver’s seat was 34-year-old Sharard DuBose, who survived despite also being shot multiple times.
Detectives Philip Nordo and Ohmarr Jenkins interviewed Raheim Hunter, who was DuBose’s cousin, and Brandon Coleman, who was DuBose’s brother. Hunter and Coleman both implicated Elante Outteridge, Sr. Hunter said that after the shooting, Outteridge came into Consuelo Matthews’s apartment, sweating and out of breath. The detectives claimed they attempted to locate and interview Outteridge, but could not find him.
The detectives then interviewed several other individuals, including DuBose, Consuelo Matthews, Jerome Boyd, John Ashmore, and Ivory Matthews, who provided written statements incriminating 19-year-old Dwane Handy as well as 21-year-old Albert Brinkley in the shooting. The detectives involved in taking the statements included Philip Nordo, Nathan Williams, Gregory Singleton, and Ohmarr Jenkins.
Coleman and Hunter then were re-interviewed, and both changed their accounts to implicate Brinkley. Hunter now said it was Brinkley who came into the apartment sweating and out of breath.
On April 9, 2011, Nordo brought Handy in for questioning. According to Nordo, Handy said he was present, but that Brinkley was the gunman. Years later, Handy would testify that Nordo was “continuously” asking him questions about oral sex, private parts, masturbation, sexual questions, and questions about doing gay porn. Handy also would testify that during the same interrogation, Nordo said, “he had security, like [a] security hook-up, like a friend who had a security company that had other jobs whereas…he can help me get a regular job or whatever the case may be.” According to Handy, he signed a statement, and Nordo let him leave, slipping a paper with his phone number into Handy’s pocket.
On May 9, 2011, Handy and Brinkley were arrested. They were charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery and possession of an instrument of a crime.
In May 2013, Brinkley and Handy went to trial in Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas. Detective Nordo testified that he and Singleton visited DuBose in the hospital. There, DuBose implicated Brinkley as the gunman, but made no mention of Handy. Detective Nordo claimed that DuBose identified Brinkley from an eight-person photo spread and described the firearm. According to the detective, DuBose did not sign his statement because he was in some sort of sling and physically unable to.
DuBose did not recall signing any statement. He testified that he was on a significant amount of medication. He said that he could use his arms for minor tasks like drinking water. He said he would have been able to sign a statement if presented with one.
According to Nordo, Boyd gave a statement that he had been holding a nine-millimeter pistol for Handy who had brought it to him a week earlier. According to the statement, Handy came to Boyd’s apartment with Brinkley, asked for the gun, and Boyd gave it to him. About 25 minutes later, Boyd heard 10 to 14 gunshots, the statement said. At trial, Boyd said he didn’t give that statement. He said that on the day of his interview, he was heavily intoxicated after taking 10 Xanax and drinking cough syrup. He said the officers knew he was intoxicated and kept waking him up to sign papers. Boyd said he signed just so he could go home. He denied having any interaction with Handy or Brinkley on the day of the shooting.
Ashmore, who was 12 years old when he was interviewed, had signed a statement saying that he was on a basketball court when he saw Brinkley shoot into a car and reach into the car to grab something. The statement also quoted Ashmore as saying he saw Handy flee from the back seat of the car.
At trial, Ashmore said he remembered that a shooting had occurred, but said he had not seen it. He said that when police had questioned him, he identified photographs of Brinkley and Handy merely as people he knew, not as involved in the shooting.
Ivory Matthews testified that she and her sister, Ebony Matthews, and their mother, Consuelo, were taken to a police station at 9:15 p.m. on April 6, 2011. They were separated and forced to spend the night. They were not interviewed until about 3 p.m. on April 7. Ivory was interviewed by Detective Nathan Williams. Her statement said she was getting out of the shower when she heard gunshots. She said that Ebony came to the apartment and reported that Ashmore had reported that he saw the shooting. Ivory’s statement said that Brinkley came to the apartment and that Consuelo told him he had to leave. At trial, Ivory testified that Ashmore did not tell her anything about the shooting. She said the signature on the statement was not hers, that she did not sign it, and that detectives had told her that if she didn’t sign it, she was going to jail.
Hunter testified that he didn’t give the statement that Outteridge or Brinkley was involved in the shooting. He said he heard the shooting, did not see it, and did not see anyone go into Matthews’s apartment.
Coleman admitted that in his statement he said that Ivory Matthews told him that Outteridge ran into the apartment after the shooting. In Coleman’s second statement, he said his first statement was a lie and he then implicated Brinkley. At trial, Coleman said both statements were false and had been written out by the detectives. He said he signed so he would be released.
The detectives testified and denied that the statements were coerced.
On May 31, 2013, the jury convicted Handy and Brinkley of second-degree murder, robbery, aggravated assault, conspiracy to commit robbery, and possession of an instrument of a crime. They were both sentenced to life in prison without parole.
In July 2015, the Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed the convictions.
Handy subsequently filed a petition seeking post-conviction relief. That was denied without a hearing. Handy appealed.
In November 2017, the Philadelphia police department suspended Nordo and began dismissal proceedings after an investigation showed he paid a witness in another case.
In February 2019, Nordo was indicted on charges of sexually assaulting witnesses and suspects, including once in an interrogation room. The grand jury found that Nordo: (1) discussed sexual conduct with individuals; (2) gave individuals money; (3) inappropriately stared at and made comments about the genitalia of various detainees, arrestees, and prisoners; (4) discussed having sexual relationships with various individuals; (5) requested that incarcerated individuals refer him to “homosexual inmates” so that he could have sex with them or groom them sexually; (6) frequently volunteered to handle ministerial work for other detectives, giving him greater access to victims for the above offenses as well as for information gathering; (7) engaged in personal conversations related to boxing, sports, or other topics of mutual interest in order to test individuals’ reactions and their likelihood to resist or comply; and (8) intimidated witnesses by displaying his firearm, admonishing them that their testimony would not be believed over his own.
Also in 2019, Detective Williams was arrested in an unrelated case. He was charged with tampering with public records, unsworn falsification, tampering with evidence, and obstruction of justice.
After Nordo’s indictment, the Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) of the Philadelphia County District Attorney’s Office began reviewing his cases. Subsequently, the CIU asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to remand Handy’s case for a hearing on his post-conviction petition based on misconduct by Nordo as well as other officers, including Jenkins and Williams.
In April 2020, Handy’s attorney, Jerome Brown, filed a revised petition for post-conviction relief. Handy asserted his statement and the statements of others were coerced by Nordo and the other detectives. The petition said the prosecution had failed to disclose evidence of misconduct by Nordo and other detectives.
On May 6, 2022, Judge Rose DeFino-Nastasi granted the petition, vacated Handy’s convictions, and ordered a new trial.
Nordo was convicted at trial and in December 2022, he was sentenced to 25½ to 49 years in prison.
In April 2024, Handy went to trial for a second time. On April 12, the jury acquitted Handy, and he was released.
– Maurice Possley
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