"That's the story I was given by the defendant's mother," Graves testified during an Aug. 2 preliminary hearing at the Criminal Justice Center. "She wanted me to stick to the story Quinzell gave police."

Graves was one of six North Philadelphia youths charged in the shooting. Charges against four of the initial suspects had been dropped in the months since the slaying and after last week's testimony, officials said Graves will plead guilty to a weapons charge in juvenile court and walk free.

McCall, 16, now stands alone, accused of shooting the popular Fairmount teen who died several weeks later [Cover, "The Wrong Place," Brian Hickey, May 4, 2006].

Graves initially claimed 14-year-old Malik Loper was the last person he saw with the gun that killed Pierson. Now, he was saying it was McCall.

The account Graves offered in court differed substantially from what he told police in March, when he didn't mention McCall was the last person he saw with the murder weapon. (In an earlier interview, Loper's mother Tangier told City Paper that McCall's fingerprints were found on the weapon, a beat-up .38 caliber revolver.)

But on the stand in August, Graves testified that he gave "someone else's" story when he initially spoke with police. That someone, he said, was McCall's mother, Susan.

According to Graves' testimony, he had a telephone conversation with McCall's mother the day after the shooting, but it was later, during a face-to-face conversation between Graves and McCall's mother, that she coached him.

As an expression of gratitude for sticking to the story, McCall's mother "put money on my books" at the House of Corrections, where Graves was held after he was arrested, he said. She was "thankful for what I did," Graves claimed.

McCall's attorney, David Nenner, called Graves' allegations against McCall's mother "hogwash."

"I think George cut a deal," Nenner said during an interview Friday. "I think he got a free pass out of jail."

McCall's mother thought of Graves "as a son" and was considering hiring an attorney for Graves in the aftermath of the shooting because his family is "pretty much poverty-stricken," said Nenner. Giving money to Graves, he continued, was "not anything she hadn't done a million times before."

Graves first mentioned the involvement of McCall's mother in a May 12 statement; his first two statements, on March 24 and May 5, made no such mention.

"George went down and told the truth the first time, when he went down with his dad, before the lawyers got to him," Nenner said.

Graves singled out Loper before he spoke with Quinzell's mom, said Nenner, who now wonders, "How come he told that story to police before he even had a conversation with Quinzell's mother?"

But Graves testified that last Wednesday was the first time he had been honest with his father about what happened that night.

On May 31, he made the deal that would allow him to be tried at Family Court in exchange for the truth. So Graves testified that he was the one who had the gun when the group crossed Girard Avenue with plans to rob someone. It was McCall's idea, he said.

The group of six encountered two white males, one after the other. The second was Pierson. The first male responded to the group's taunts, telling them he had no money. "I ain't got nothing," Graves recalled. But Pierson just kept on walking.

"He never said a word," he said.

At that point, Graves said he gave back the gun that McCall had stolen from his aunt's house near 26th and Jefferson streets because Graves "didn't feel right" carrying it.

No more than 10 minutes after Brian Crosland — one of the six minors involved — threw a bottle at a window, Pierson came around the corner with a group of friends. Some were toting bottles, Graves said.

Graves said he fled the intersection of 27th and Poplar streets around 8 p.m. as a fight broke out between his crowd and Pierson's, but not before socking the ill-fated teen. He then heard "pow, pow, pow" and turned to see McCall running past him. He thought he heard someone drop a gun on the pavement. McCall asked Graves, "'Did I hit him?" Graves replied, "Yeah."

He turned around and saw Pierson "lying on the ground. ... You could see the blood."

Attempts to reach Pierson's family for comment after the hearing were unsuccessful but high-school friend Lauren McCabe said, "The thought of the other kids being free makes me sick to my stomach. ... I think they should all spend the rest of their pathetic lives in prison."

McCall's arraignment is scheduled for Aug. 23, six days before his 17th birthday.

(x_oneill@citypaper.net)