Philadelphia Daily News from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 4

PAGE 4 THE' PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS MONDAY, APRIL 3, 1995 111 "VDC 17' Dug inrainn) ifdWr 1 14 -f a relief after sons' murders 1 Eric Erwin, 15 (left) and his brother Cordell, 13: Shot to death Recent arrest fcv Nicole Weisensee Daily News Staff Writer There was only one thing that could ease the pain of a mother whose two sons were shot to death last week. The arrest of the killer. Yolanda Erwin, 37, got some satisfaction Friday night, when police arrested a suspect and charged him with the murders of her two sons, Eric, IS, and Cor-dell, 13. They were shot while playing craps last Wednesday night on a West Philadelphia sidewalk with two friends who were wounded. "I'm relieved because that was Craps-shoot ing popular pastim the thing that upset me my boys were gone and he was still out there, able to do the same thing again," Erwin said in an interview yesterday.

Erwin and her husband, Eric, 43, have one other child, Tiana, 6. Police arrested Dwight Watson, 18, of 26th Street near Manton, about 8 p.m. Friday. They found him hiding in a closet in his South Philadelphia home, police said. They believe the shooting and robbery were motivated by personal problems between Watson and one of the victims, sources said.

He was held without bail on neighborhood high schools, kids regularly play dice or cards for money. The schools confiscate the dice or cards if students are caught gambling, but that hasn't stopped some teens from playing in bathrooms or huddling in groups during lunch periods. For example, at University City High School, where one of the shooting victims and the suspect attended school, officials have a drawer full of dice and cards. Most students like to use the transparent green and red dice because you can see if they're loaded. They play card games like blackjack or poker.

One School District security of- -ficial said students who are caught gambling are either suspended or sent to counseling. The official knew of at least one case in which a student in West Phila- for, she said. "My heart is aching, but the only justice is he's not out there to do something else," she said. "I don't want another mother to go through this. I wouldn't want that for anybody." The price for her sons' lives? Five dollars, which is all they had on them when they were held up.

Police believe the robber got about $8. "My sons had just come to me, and I gave them $5 and told them to share," Erwin said. The robber approached the four boys, told them to lie down and put their money in front of them and then shot all four of them repeatedly, said Patrick Dempsey. But that isn't all. The robber paused to reload his gun, Dempsey said, and while he did so Williams and Thomas fled.

Cordell, who had 13 bullets in him, was already dead, and Eric could not move, he said. Eric died later in the hospital. Erwin was told that after the robber shot Eric, he noticed he was still alive, went back to him, said something like, "You're not dead yet" and shot him again, she said. Watson's girlfriend, Latasha Martin, 17, who's lived with him for two years in South Philadelphia, said he was with her all day and could not have shot the boys. "I don't think he would've done anything like this," she said.

"He has been in trouble before, but I don't think he'd do something like this. I think he'd have more sense than that." See MURDERS Page 31 Also shot were Gary Thomas, 22, of 43rd Street near Wallace, and Kenneth Williams, 17, of Brooklyn Street near Haverford Avenue. Thomas was treated and released the same night from the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania while Williams remains in stable condition there. Watson's arrest is the one thing in the whole horrible week that Yolanda Erwin could be thankful one! shown is a 1 930s crap game. street-corner gambling.

He said the street-corner players don't gamble for much money. "It's a nickel-and-dime sport." He said mob-run poker games with higher stakes were more likely to be targets of robberies. Staff writer Yvonne Latty contributed to this report. subitum! charges of murder, robbery and related crimes. Watson was identified by one of the surviving victims, who picked him out from mug shots, police said.

Watson also was identified by a witness who saw him running from the scene, police said. Watson has relatives who live near the scene of the shooting, police said. The four victims were shot about 7:20 p.m. Wednesday as they played craps on Fairmount Avenue, a couple of blocks from their home on Brooklyn Street near Haverford Avenue. Cordell Erwin died at the scene.

His brother died Friday afternoon. The gambling tradition is an old delphia High School had to be sent to Gamblers Anonymous for addiction. Police said street-corner dice games break out all the time. Chief of operations Richard Zappile said police were more concerned and spend more time investigating gambling connected to organized crime than on organization, whose -Rd-pfeven See-TEEN J. ran.

imi wt- te. tion, has transvestites. outreach "I want a and work Smith Langley His gay not attend Unity held for him. His But a N.J., not to go by Marisol Bello Daily News Staff Writer The teens throw the dice for $3, S4 or $5, usually no more than $10. They play in school bathrooms or city sidewalks.

Now the game has cost two West Philadelphia teens their lives. Eric and Cordell Erwin were fatally shot last week in a robbery while playing a sidewalk game. Two other friends were wounded. Playing craps has a long tradition as a popular pastime for youths and adults. "It's a citywide problem," said Alfonso Sorichetti, principal at Bok Technical High School where Eric Erwin was a sophomore.

"I've seen it in the neighborhoods as I've driven by late at night," Sorichetti said. "It's a popular way to pass the time, unfortunately. But it's the reality." In city schools, particularly 'eatlh) Its trasstit i Police said they have made no arrests and have no suspects in the case. The violent death of Langley, who moved to the city just three weeks before his murder, hits hard a community of teen-agers caught up in the fantasy and glamor of transvestite life. "These kids don't expect to live to see 30," said Tyrone Smith, executive director of Unity, a support group for black gay men.

"They go to a school system that can't understand them. A place youfere called a faggot and freak. A place where you have no peers." And Langley's death has been a wake-up call to Unity. by Yvonne Latty Daily Neiivs Staff Writer He wore a stuffed bra and a scarf pulled around his long wavy hair as he went out into the cold winter night. Timothy Langley, 19, didn't have a life plan.

All he knew was he wanted to live as a woman, his friends said. So, on Feb. 28 he put on his makeup and went out as a woman he named Tianna. The next day his fully clothed body was found sprawled on rocks in a remote area of Fairmount Park near Robin Hood Dell and Strawberry Mansion Bridge. Shot once in the back of the head, he had only condoms and S3 become a gathering place for young He said Unity would step up efforts targeting these teen-agers.

facility where we can be with kids them through the coming-out process," said. was buried March 8 in South Jersey. friends were not invited and did the funeral, they said. On March 25 a well-attended memorial service mother, Carol Austin, declined comment. cousin, Kenneth Brown, 19, of Willing-boro, said he had pleaded with Langley to Philadelphia.

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