PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — One of two men involved in the shooting death of a West Philadelphia track star bound for Penn State University was convicted of first-degree murder Thursday.
Taron Small, 21, turned to his family in court, looked up and said, “damn,” after Judge Scott O’Keefe said he was guilty of killing 18-year-old Kristian Marche in August 2018. Marche was expected to start at Penn State on a track and field scholarship the day after he was killed.
Prosecutors called the shooting an assassination and said that Small, who was 16 at the time, “hunted” Marche “like an animal” after a confrontation between him and another teen, Byron Vinson.
Vinson, who was also 16 at the time, testified and told the judge the entire incident was because of a fight over a gun and that Vinson and Small met up with Marche to physically fight.
He said they were all walking back along East Pastorius Street, near where Marche lived, and Small started following closely behind Marche.
Prosecutors played surveillance video that aligned with Vinson’s story, then played a clip where someone, who they say is Small, fired the gun once into the back of Marche’s head, instantly killing him.
The defense tried to repeatedly tell the judge prosecutors didn’t have enough evidence, objecting at times to Vinson’s story about the fight.
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Vinson pleaded guilty on assault and conspiracy to commit assault charges in juvenile court in 2019 and has been in a juvenile facility since.
As Small was taken away in handcuffs, he cursed at the Sheriffs and told them he would smack them.
Small will be sentenced in May and could face the rest of his life in prison. The minimum sentence is 35 years.