Witnesses in murder trial recount day of girl's death

Philadelphia Daily News, September, 2008 by JULIE SHAW shawj@phillynews.com 215-854-2592

Fifteen-year-old Nicole Reilly's dead body lay contorted in an overgrown, weedy Kensington lot, her hair matted to her bloodied, bruised face.

A thin tree branch rested on her 88-pound frame. She was dressed in blue plaid boxer shorts and a white T-shirt. Her battered head lay on its right side, on top of a bloodstained rock.

Photos of Reilly - beaten and strangled in 2004 - were shown yesterday on a projection screen before Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Minehart and a courtroom packed with family members and friends of the victim, and those of defendant Bryan McDonald.

McDonald, 29, of Firth Street near Jasper, Kensington, faces a nonjury trial on charges of first-degree murder and related offenses in the Aug. 24, 2004, slaying of Reilly, who lived about four...