Ex-facilities employee confessed to murder

The Daily Pennsylvanian

Penn Facilities Services employee Frank Jeffs was arrested in connection with a murder in July after confessing to the May 5 shooting of 28-year-old South Philadelphia resident Robert Kerwood.

Cpl. Jim Pauley, a spokesman for the Philadelphia Police Department, said that Kerwood was found behind the wheel of a running Ford Expedition around 11:20 a.m. on May 5 at 61st Street and Eastwick Avenue in Southwest Philadelphia with a gunshot wound to the left side of his face.

Kerwood was taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where doctors pronounced him dead early the next morning. Pauley said the presumed motive for the crime was road rage.

After receiving a tip that Jeffs was involved in the shooting, Philadelphia Police picked up the 51-year-old Southwest Philadelphia man at his home on the 6000 block of Dicks Avenue, at which point he confessed to the crime, Sergeant Irma Labrice of the Philadelphia Police Department Homicide Division said.

Jeffs' employment at the University was terminated "as soon as we became aware of the situation," University spokeswoman Lori Doyle said.

While a trial date for Jeffs has not yet been set, a hearing was held yesterday. Jeffs is being charged with murder and related offenses.

Jeffs, who is currently being held within the Philadelphia prison system, was an air-conditioning and refrigeration mechanic at the University.

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