Tearful apology in beating death

By Kia Gregory
Inquirer Staff Writer

At her sentencing yesterday in Common Pleas Court, Echo Ward turned to the victim's parents and wept.

"I don't know what to tell you," Ward, 25, said to Peg and Tom Bradly, who were also in tears. "I'm sorry."

In January, Ward pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit aggravated assault in the beating death of the Bradlys' 28-year-old son, Tim, who was killed in 2007 on the rooftop of an abandoned building in West Philadelphia known to squatters as Paradise City.

"It will never be enough," Ward said in her apology. "I can't change my mistakes. And I didn't realize them until it was too late. I'm sorry."

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