By Tom Waring
Times Staff Writer

The two men involved in the beating death of an Oxford Circle teenager six years ago could be heading back to prison.
Julio Maldanado, 35, and Denis Calderon, 34, were convicted of aggravated assault and other charges in July 1997 for beating 18-year-old Christian Saladino.
The pair were sentenced to two and a half to 10 years in prison.
While they were in prison, Saladino died in September 1998. They were rearrested and tried for murder, but a jury found them not guilty.
Then, Maldanado and Calderon appealed their original conviction on grounds that they received ineffective representation.
Common Pleas Court Judge Gregory Smith upheld the appeal in April 2000, overturning the conviction and allowing the duo to walk out of the Criminal Justice Center as free men.
The district attorney’s office decided to appeal Smith’s decision to Superior Court. Attorneys filed briefs and made oral arguments in January 2002.
On July 11, a three-judge panel voted unanimously to reverse Smith’s ruling and reinstate the original sentence.
That made Saladino’s parents, Pat and Bernadette, happy.
“It’s good to see justice being done,” said Bernadette Saladino.
Superior Court Judges Richard Klein, Joseph Hudock and Phyllis Beck ruled that the original defense team employed a reasonable strategy in not calling an expert witness to determine why there wasn’t a bruise on Saladino’s body.
That’s because, the court noted, defense attorneys acknowledged that Maldanado and Calderon hit Saladino. Their argument was that it was done in self-defense.
Maldanado and Calderon, who are cousins, can ask Superior Court to reconsider or appeal to the state Supreme Court.
Assistant District Attorney Mike Erlich said the Supreme Court declines to hear most appeals.
If the defense appeal fails, Maldanado and Calderon would have to surrender to authorities and appear again in front of Smith to be re-sentenced to the earlier prison term. They would, of course, be given credit for time served.
Defense attorneys Michael Parlow and Michael McDermott were unavailable for comment.
Seth Williams, who prosecuted both cases against Maldanado and Calderon, said Superior Court made the right decision.
“I’m very happy for the Saladino family,” he said. “It was a tragedy what happened to them. I’m glad the criminal justice system didn’t make them a victim a second time.”
Saladino, of the 800 block of Scattergood St., was beaten in the early-morning hours of Aug. 4, 1996, at the intersection of Frontenac and Rosalie streets, a few blocks from his house.
He was hit in the head with a baseball bat and The Club anti-car-theft device. The attack left him in a coma, and he died two years later at his house.
Maldanado, of New York, was visiting Calderon, who then lived on the 1100 block of Rosalie St.
The two Hispanic men got into a verbal war with a group of young white people. Prosecutors said Maldanado hit Saladino with The Club, knocking him to the ground. Then, Calderon hit him with a bat.
The prosecution said that Saladino was an innocent bystander. He had just graduated from Cardinal Dougherty High School with honors.