Thursday
Jan012009
Man Shot in Movie Brawl
Thursday, January 1, 2009 at 10:59PM
James Joseph Cialella Jr, 29, is in a lot of trouble. He was arrested, charged with: Attempted murder, Aggravated assault, Violation of firearms act, Possession of an instrument of crime, Simple assault and Reckless endangerment of another person. He is accused of firing a shot that broke the arm of Woffard Lomax Jr., 31, of Yeadon, during the movie "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."
The incident happened at about 9:30 p.m. on Christmas night, inside the Riverview Movie Theater on Columbus Boulevard in South Philadelphia. Earlier reports say that according to the police, James Cialella was upset that the Lomax family - who were also at the theater, seated in front of him - were making so much noise that he could not watch the movie. He asked them to be quiet and when that failed he threw popcorn at the son. The boy's father, Woffard Lomax, started to quarrel with Cialella, who pulled a gun - a black colored Kel-Tec .380 handgun - from his waist and shot him in the left arm, breaking it.
Police said James Joseph Cialella, of the 1900 block of Hollywood Street, was still in the theater complex when they arrived. Officers recovered the Kel-Tec .380 caliber handgun from the front of Cialella's waist, clipped inside his sweatpants.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=625lvIhi4pA]
However, Attorney Greg Pagano, Cialella's lawyer tells a much different story. Pagano says 29-year-old James Joseph Cialella was being choked and punched as he tried to break up a fight, in which another person was pistol-whipped, in the Philadelphia theater on Christmas night. He says his client is an Iraq war veteran who fired in self-defense.
The victim, Woffard Lomax, testified that a brawl broke out after a man - not Cialella - told his group to be quiet. Lomax says he started fighting with that person when another man pulled out a gun and fired. A judge ordered Cialella held for trial.