Calvin “Butter” Walls, a 21-year-old male from Chester, Pennsylvania, was killed on March 18, 1989, in what prosecutors later described as an execution-style shooting. The killing happened at the 600 block of Edwards Street in Chester, where Walls was shot five times. Online memorial information identifies him as having been lost to gun violence that day, and a newspaper account of the later trial described the case as a city murder rooted in a feud that had grown deadly.
The case
centered on two Chester men: James Worley, 26, of the 1300 block of West 7th Street, and Leroy Ponzo, 22, of the 500 block of Norris Street. Prosecutors described Worley as the triggerman and Ponzo as the driver of the getaway car. Assistant District Attorney John Lynch told jurors that the killing came out of “bad blood” between Worley and Walls, saying the long-running dispute escalated after both men became involved with the same woman, Yvette “Munchie” Cowan, who had been described as Worley's girlfriend.
At trial, witnesses placed Worley at the scene and described the final moments of the shooting. James Holmes, who was 19 at the time, testified that Worley came up behind Walls on the night of the killing and said, “Remember me?” Holmes said Worley then shot Walls once in the stomach and once in the head. After Walls fell into the street, Holmes testified that Worley stood over him and fired three more shots into his head.
Another witness, Tom White, 21, also testified about what happened immediately afterward. Both Holmes and White said they saw Worley jump into Ponzo's car, which then left quickly. Prosecutors used that testimony to present the shooting as a deliberate killing and to tie Ponzo to the escape after the gunfire.
A jury of eight men and four women deliberated for about seven hours before convicting both Worley and Ponzo of first-degree murder. The conviction carried a mandatory life sentence under the account available online. Delaware County Judge William R. Toal Jr. deferred formal sentencing while motions for a new trial were pending, and he revoked Ponzo's bail after the verdict; Ponzo had previously been free. Online source material found for the case confirms the convictions and the mandatory life exposure, but it does not provide a later sentencing article or additional verified details about appeals, release, or any separate punishment beyond the first-degree murder convictions.
