Some day, Eddie Polec's killers will get a second chance at life. His younger brother says Polec might have wanted it that way.
Three young men were convicted Monday of third-degree murder and a fourth was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter in the November 1994 attack on the 16-year-old Polec, who was beaten with baseball bats on the steps of his church.Two other young men were cleared of all homicide charges. All six were convicted of con-spiracy.
Prosecutors had sought first-degree murder convictions, but jurors rejected their argument that the six defendants had set out to kill Polec.
"My brother was the most forgiving person you'll ever want to meet, and I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't have a hand," Billy Polec, 15, said.
He said maybe his brother sent a message to jurors about the defendants: " `Make them think about what they did . . . but one day let them come back to their families.' "
The defendants' parents sobbed and Polec's parents sat stoically as the jury convicted Nick Pinero, 18, Anthony Rienzi, 18, and Thomas Crook, 19, of third-degree murder.
According to witnesses, all three wielded the bats that left Polec bleeding from seven skull fractures on the steps of St. Cecilia's Church in Philadelphia, where he had served as an altar boy.
Teenagers from a rival high school in suburban Abington jumped the Philadelphia youth to avenge insults and get even for a rumored assault on an Abington girl. She later acknowledged she was never assaulted.