Success Stories

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Jury delivers mixed verdict in Chester mayor’s wife’s carjacking

Jasper Moy

By ALEX ROSE | arose@delcotimes.com | The Delaware County Daily Times

PUBLISHED: August 27, 2015 at 9:44 p.m. | UPDATED: August 19, 2021 at 2:58 a.m.

MEDIA COURTHOUSE >> A 25-year-old Upper Darby man was acquitted Thursday on robbery and theft charges for a May 2014 carjacking involving the wife of Chester Mayor John Linder.

Jasper Moy was found guilty of receiving stolen property and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, however, following a two-day trial before Judge Mary Alice Brennan. The jury deliberated for less than three hours before delivering a verdict.

The jury heard from victim Jourdeana F. Willis Linder, who said she had parked her gold Ford 500 sedan across the street from her home on the 500 block of Rainey Street at about 9:30 p.m. May 14, 2014 and was retrieving some packages from her trunk.

“When I turned around, there was a man standing directly in front of me with a gun in my face,” she told Assistant District Attorney William Judge. “There was another man standing on the left 

Linder said both men were wearing hoodies pulled tight around their faces. The gunman, wearing white pants, ordered her to drop her purse and car keys and warned her not to scream. Linder said she handed over the keys and dropped her purse, then backed up halfway into the street before running for her front door, screaming for her husband.

Linder, who stands 5 feet 4 inches tall, described the gunman as a little taller than her with a dark complexion. The other man had lighter skin, she said. After getting inside, she said she and her husband watched the car drive off toward Fourth Street. Linder said she later found her purse where she had dropped it.

While Linder could not initially identify the man with the gun, she told defense attorney James Brose that she now recognized Moy from his features. She said she was able to see his eyes, nose, cheeks and mouth despite the tightly-pulled hood.

Jurors also heard from Chester Police Officer Justin Echevarria, who said he spotted Moy exiting Linder’s car as he and his partner came around a corner at Seventh and Norris Streets. Echevarria described Moy as looking “like a deer in headlights” before he bolted down an alley between Sixth and Seventh streets.

Echevarria gave chase, but said he soon lost sight of the defendant and called for a perimeter to be set up at about 11:40 p.m.

Chester Officer Michael Canfield said he was called in to assist. After another officer stopped two individuals on the street, Canfield said he and another officer checked the alley and rear yards of the 700 block of Lloyd Street, where he discovered Moy inside an abandoned car.

Canfield said Moy appeared to be ducking down to hide from the officer’s flashlight. When he stepped out, Canfield said Moy had dark pants around his knees and no shoes on. A pair of white jeans were on the floor of the car, he said, and Moy’s shoes were off.

Echevarria was also able to identify Moy as the person he saw bolting from Linder’s car.

Defense witness Barbara Moore, who lives on the 700 block of Lloyd, said she knew Moy from the neighborhood and characterized him as non-violent. She said he had been sleeping in the abandoned car parked behind her neighbor’ house for about six weeks prior to his arrest. Brose had produced numerous other clothing items taken from the car that night allegedly belonging to Moy.

In closing arguments, Brose questioned Linder’s credibility in identifying Moy after 18 months when she was unable to do so at a preliminary hearing just two months after the robbery.

After a 3 day trial, a federal jury acquitted my client of unlawfully possessing a firearm.  

United States District Court for the District of Delaware  1:13-cr-00027

Our client was under investigation for tax fraud related to her businesses.  After a year long battle attempting to convince the U.S. Government of our client's innocence, which included extensive forensic review of business records, the charges were withdrawn.

Attorney Brose was specially appointed by the Delaware Superior Court pro hac vice to represent a woman charged with unlawful possession of drugs and a gun.  The charges were dropped.

Our client was charged with shooting two people in broad daylight in the City of Easton.  After trial, the jury was deadlocked.  Rather than re-try the case, the District Attorney's Office offered a negotiated plea to lesser charges.

Our client's SORNA conviction was overturned on appeal by the Pa. Superior Court, who ruled SORNA's retroactive application violated ex post facto protections guaranteed by the U.S. and PA constitutions.