Philly Man Pleads Guilty to Rydal Park Stabbing

Kaseem Lawson-Gregg, 20, of the 700 block of East Upsal Street, Philadelphia, pleaded guilty yesterday to a felony aggravated assault charge after admitting to stabbing a man in February, according to a report in phillyburbs.com.

According to the report, he entered an open plea; the judge postponed the sentencing to look more into Lawson-Gregg’s background. He could be sentenced to a maximum of 10 to 20 years; the guidelines recommend a minimum of 36 to 54 months.

Lawson-Gregg does not appear to have a prior criminal history in Pennsylvania.

The plea stems from a Feb. 15 incident in the Rydal Park retirement community parking lot. The victim, who works as a cook at the retirement community, was stabbed six times following his shift. 

See the initial stories here and here or below.

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According to the victim, Lawson-Gregg and an unidentified man approached the vehicle in which he was a passenger at about 8:15 p.m. on Feb. 15. The victim said Lawson-Gregg tapped on the passenger-side window; the unidentified man stood behind Lawson-Gregg.

“He said, ‘What happened with my girlfriend?’ or something like that,” the victim said on the stand. ‘Do you have a problem with my girl? Why did you call her a [expletive?]’”

The victim said he had gotten into an altercation with Lawson-Gregg’s girlfriend, Shayna McCrae, with whom he works, about a week prior to the stabbing. The altercation resulted in the victim being suspended from work for three days.   

On the stand, the victim said he didn’t call McCrae an expletive, but rather “a heifer.”

The victim exited the vehicle and started arguing with Lawson-Gregg and then the unidentified man swung at the victim.

Following a scuffle, which included McCrae, the fight broke up, according to the victim, and both parties went their separate ways — until the victim said, “I bet you didn’t expect that from a small [expletive.]”

After that remark, the victim said McCrae confronted him; he then “mugged” McCrae by pushing her away by her face, at which point he said Lawson-Gregg stabbed him.

“I didn’t know what to think … it didn’t register in my mind at first,” the victim testified. “I yelled, ‘They’re cutting me, they got a knife, they got a knife, somebody get help.”

Walko asked the victim to show his wounds to the court; defense attorney Joseph Green II objected, saying it was prejudicial, but the objection was overruled.

The victim lifted his shirt and revealed several pieces of gauze all over his body, as well as several fresh silver staples placed in a vertical line near his belly button.

Abington Detective Robert Wilsbach, a witness, reading from the affidavit, said that the victim was stabbed in the: 

• right scapula
• mid back, which cut an artery and required a ligation
• left lower abdomen
• left anterior chest wall, which caused a hemothorax
• right thoracotomy, which caused a pneumothorax
• right knee

The victim was in surgery for six hours and lost a liter of blood during surgery, according Wilsbach, who said he spoke with Abington Memorial Hospital health professionals regarding the victim’s injuries.