Trial starts in aspiring teaching’s 2008 killing in Philadelphia

A trial is underway in the shooting death of an aspiring teacher from Minnesota who authorities say was gunned down for his iPod a month after moving to Philadelphia.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports testimony began Wednesday in the trial of suspect Marcellus Jones. The 37-year-old is charged with the June 2008 murder of 23-year-old Beau Zabel.

Zabel moved from Austin, Minnesota, to Philadelphia to start work in the public schools a few weeks before he was killed during a street robbery.

Jones is already serving a life sentence for killing a man to prevent him from talking to police about Zabel’s death.

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On Wednesday, witness Toni Nelson recalled finding Zabel shot on the street corner. Her adult daughter testified she peered out her home’s window to see a man searching around the body.

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