Philadelphia Weekly

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Scene and be seen: Kevin Coles was killed in front of this building he owned in North Philly.

Last Monday night Ralph Lowe's mom cooked up some of his favorites, including macaroni and cheese and collard greens. It took Lowe four hours to eat his dinner. One. Tiny. Morsel. At. A. Time.

"My stomach is just so used to me eating soup," Lowe, 21, says. "That's all they feed you in jail. You can switch the flavor, but it's still soup."

The cops locked up Lowe on July 30, 2004. The district attorney charged him with the shooting death of Kevin "Chuck" Coles on July 21, 2004. Less than two hours earlier Coles had brawled with a group of teenagers-including Lowe-who routinely loitered outside a building he owned a block away.

In the wake of the shooting, widespread TV and newspaper coverage of the murder portrayed Coles, 44, as a neighborhood vigilante who crusaded against drug dealers in the North Philly neighborhood.

But as Lowe's defense team and the police continued to investigate the murder, they discovered the facts were actually much more complicated than a case of teenage thugs retaliating against a good Samaritan. In reality, a very angry Coles may have been carrying a gun when he initiated the fatal
confrontation.

Although charges against Lowe were dropped May 15, mandating his release from the city-run Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility (CFCF), assistant DA Ed Cameron says they can be reinstated "any time."

"The only reason we dropped charges against Ralph is because two of our witnesses went south," Cameron says. "I don't believe his alibi witnesses."

One of Lowe's attorneys, Ron Greenblatt, says his firm wouldn't have spent "hundreds of hours" on the case if they didn't believe in Lowe's innocence.

Ultimately, the DA charged Frank "Stine" Pralour, Lowe's cousin, with murdering Coles. On May 19 a jury found Pralour guilty of voluntary manslaughter, a crime that carries a 10-to-20-year sentence.

Lowe's lawyers Meg Flores and Greenblatt say they gave the district attorney contact information for alibi witnesses 10 months ago, and the statements could've sprung Lowe from jail earlier had the DA acted on it sooner. But Cameron adamantly denies the DA's office dropped the ball.

In general, alibi witnesses like girlfriends and brothers make for a weak defense. But in Lowe's case, Greenblatt says, the witnesses were atypical. For instance, his best friend works and attends school at night. Cell phone records matched the calls witnesses said Lowe placed and received that night. It also helped that Lowe was taking two trains and a bus to his job at a Cos� in Bryn Mawr.

Flores says she never considered asking Lowe to cut a deal with the prosecution. "We knew our client didn't do it."

Hard cell: Ralph Lowe was released last week after spending almost two years in jail.

The friends suspected Coles of calling the cops on them. In retaliation, they smashed in the windows on Coles' Ford Taurus on July 21, 2004.

A very pissed-off Coles confronted Lowe around 8 p.m. near 16th and Rushcomb streets. When Coles punched Lowe, he and two of his cousins ganged up on the older man.

Even though Coles was strong-he stood nearly 6 feet tall and tipped the scales at about 250 pounds-the kids pounded him. By the time the melee ended, one of Coles' eyes was nearly swollen shut, and knots covered his head.

Despite his injuries, Coles drove to his home in Northeast Philadelphia, where he lived with his wife Amira Clemons, his two sons and his stepson.