'That is Keith Gibson': Witness IDs man accused of local killing spree as case wraps
Prosecutors rested their case Thursday against Keith Gibson, a man they say killed two and maimed another in a string of robberies and killings across Delaware and Philadelphia in spring 2021.
During the final two days of trial, one witness identified Gibson as being near the scene of one shooting, while another told the jury Gibson was the man depicted on videos showing homicides in both Delaware and Philadelphia, as well as one nonfatal robbery.
Amid prosecutors' weeklong presentation of circumstantial "puzzle pieces" in this case, only one person pointed from the stand to Gibson as the perpetrator in the surveillance videos.
Thursday marked the two-week conclusion of prosecutors presenting that evidence, which they contend shows Gibson killed a 28-year-old mother working at an Elsmere T-Mobile store, as well as a 42-year-old man shot dead at a home in Wilmington. These are both in addition to shooting a convenience store clerk and robbing a drugstore in the city.
After the state rested its case, Gibson declined to testify or present witnesses in his defense, setting up closing arguments from both sides to the jury Monday.
Law enforcement in Philadelphia have said that once proceedings in Delaware are complete, they will charge him with four additional murders that occurred in that city around the same time.
Video identification heard by the jury
Over the past two weeks, jurors in Wilmington have seen multiple videos depicting a masked man with a revolver enter stores, demand money and shoot those tending the stores. A detective testified that the crimes, barring one, carry similar themes: They start as robberies by a masked Black man holding a revolver and end with him shooting his victim.
But nobody had identified to the jury that Gibson was the man depicted in the videos until testimony Wednesday.
"Everything about this video is Keith Gibson," his former associate told the jury after seeing clips from the Elsmere cellphone store.
The woman, whose name is being withheld by Delaware Online/The News Journal due to concerns for her safety, told the jury she knew Gibson for six months to a year and he would stay at her home multiple times a week in Delaware.
It was a Philadelphia homicide that put the witness on the radar of detectives. She told the jury she saw footage on social media depicting the man who killed the lone worker at a North Philadelphia Dunkin' store during a robbery in June 2021.
"I recognized who it was and I was honestly scared for my life," she told the jury.
She said she called in what she believed to be an anonymous tip to Delaware State Police and pointed them to Gibson. She would later be contacted by detectives and shown footage from the Elsmere killing. She said she could identify Gibson in that video from his gait, the way he stood and his outfit.
Prosecutors would also show her video showing from afar a man entering a building where 42-year-old Ronald Wright was killed the same day as the Philadelphia Dunkin' homicide.
"I know Keith personally. That is his walk. That is Keith Gibson," she told the jury.
Opening statements: Police say he killed people in Wilmington and Philadelphia. What first day of trial showed
On the stand, she was also shown a video showing a masked man entering a convenience store in downtown Wilmington, shooting a teenage clerk and robbing the business. She again said it depicted Gibson. The store's attendant was shot multiple times and survived.
Defense attorneys raised questions about the woman's identification of Gibson.
Richard Sparaco, Gibson's defense attorney, noted that she saw the videos from the convenience store robbery and Wright's homicide in a recent meeting with prosecutors preparing for her testimony in the trial, suggesting she wasn't expecting them to show her anyone other than Gibson in those videos. He also questioned how she could identify Gibson from his walk and without a clear view of his face.
"I know who I saw in the video," the woman replied.
A different woman testified Thursday, telling prosecutors she was sitting in front of her home near the site of the convenience store robbery when she noticed a suspicious man standing across the street fiddling with his pants.
She said she had lived in the area for years and had not seen the man in the area before. In court, she identified the man she saw as Gibson based on a mark on his forehead.
As she sat on her front steps talking to others, the woman said she watched the stranger, who repeatedly fidgeted with his pants, walk in the direction of a convenience store that prosecutors say Gibson robbed. The woman told the jury she heard gunfire and saw people running away from the convenience store shortly after.
Sparaco, the defense attorney, questioned her claim of having seen his client after the sun had set and after being high from smoking marijuana.
“I was high, but I know what I saw,” she told Sparaco. “I lived it.”
He also noted that she previously told police the man had returned to the area, but gave no such testimony Friday.
The defense attorney asked the woman why she didn’t initially tell police she saw Gibson across the street, alluding that she did that only after a detective showed her a picture of Gibson during questioning concerning the shooting death of Leslie Ruiz-Basilio at the T-Mobile store.
In testimony outside the presence of the jury, the clerk who was shot in the convenience store robbery identified Gibson as the shooter. However, the judge barred prosecutors from asking him that in front of the jury after defense attorneys made legal arguments suggesting his identification was tainted by a photo he was shown by a family member in the months after the robbery.
'He had a gun on me'
Gibson is also charged with robbing a now-closed Rite Aid in Wilmington. Gibson's associate who testified Wednesday was not able to identify Gibson as the man depicted on video robbing that store.
The clerk in that robbery was not physically harmed and testified Wednesday.
"I was nervous ... because he had a gun at me," she told the jury.
She testified that did not stop her from thinking to drop a wad of cash outfitted with a tracking device into the bag the robber handed her, which led police to Gibson shortly after.
Previous reporting: How a man wanted in 3 recent killings in Philadelphia, Delaware was out on the street
"I put that in there first," the woman told the jury.
Gibson was arrested nearby. He was wearing a bulletproof vest, was armed with a knife and an empty gun holster, and carried gloves, a mask, bullets and cash in his pockets, prosecutors said. Police would find trace cash, cigarettes and clothes prosecutors said matched the Rite Aid robbery in a house nearby.
A black revolver was found tucked away near where Gibson was hiding. He was also wearing a black backpack that Wright's sister identified as belonging to her late sibling in testimony to the jury.
'Puzzle pieces'
Detectives would later search his residence in Philadelphia and locate a receipt that matched a bicycle found in the woods near the Elsmere cellphone store the day of that homicide.
During her testimony, Gibson's associate said Gibson at the time told her he lost the bike "doing a lick." She said she later learned that was slang for a robbery.
The person who killed Basilio in the Elsmere cellphone store also stole her vehicle, which police found in Philadelphia near where Gibson was living. He is not on trial for the Dunkin' killing, but the investigations were intertwined and the jury saw videos tracking the perpetrator in that crime from near where Gibson was living to the scene that morning.
The jury also heard evidence from ballistics experts pointing out similarities between bullets found on Gibson when he was arrested and those recovered from the victims, as well as about their difficulties trying to examine those bullets.
Contact Xerxes Wilson at (302) 324-2787 or xwilson@delawareonline.com.
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Delaware trial of Keith Gibson goes to closings after witness IDs him
