Why did Shaquille Gibson say he beat, and later stomp, his cellmate’s face so severely it caved his nose inward and he died?

It was because “Mister Beattie,” his 57-year-old cellmate who used a wheelchair, bumped into him and didn’t say “excuse me,” a state trooper testified.

That’s what Gibson said in an interview with police after the July 1 beating death, according to testimony by Trooper Amy Kocher-Fry at his preliminary hearing Thursday morning.

Magisterial District Judge Christopher Delozier, who presided over the hearing, passed first-degree and third-degree murder charges up to Cumberland County Court after hearing that testimony.

The purpose of a preliminary hearing is to determine if a crime occurred and if the person accused of that crime is most likely the person who committed it.

And by the end of the hearing, it came out that “Kevin Beattie” was not even the victim’s real name.

“Beattie” never left his cell July 1 to receive his insulin, according to Matthew Bixler, a corrections officer at SCI Camp Hill. Bixler entered the cell and found “Beattie” was not breathing and with a towel over his head, and blood splatters in the area near his head.

Prison officials called state police trooper Amy Kocher-Fry to the prison to investigate, the trooper said as she took the stand. She interviewed Gibson in a conference room by the prison’s security office.

Gibson said “Beattie” bumped into him before the killing, which caused rough feelings, according to Kocher-Fry. Additionally, she said Gibson told her that Beattie threatened to assault him. She said Gibson walked around agitated, and other inmates told him to just let it go.

Instead, Gibson waited until he and “Beattie” were locked inside their cell together, Kocher-Fry said. Gibson told the trooper he punched “Beattie” eight to ten times in the face with a closed fist while “Beattie” was lying on the bottom bunk bed, Kocher-Fry said.

Gibson then paused for five seconds, Kocher-Fry said, hearing “Beattie” struggle to breathe. He climbed up the bunk bed, holding onto the frame with both hands before he proceeded to kick “Beattie” in the face eight to ten more times using leather boots given to him by the Department of Corrections.

When Gibson heard Beattie stop breathing, he told police he began pacing around the rest of the night, Kocher-Fry said.

According to Kocher-Fry, the cell door had a slot for food and a small window for corrections officers to look in on an inmate’s face. Gibson said he stood in front of Beattie to obscure the man’s body on the bed while corrections officers did their inmate “count” in the morning, Kocher-Fry said.

Gibson told corrections officers Beattie wouldn’t get his insulin until late that day, according to Kocher-Fry.

Kocher-Fry testified that video records showed both Gibson and “Beattie” enter the cell, and only Gibson left the cell July 1.

“Beattie” was eligible for parole in spring of 2025 and was likely to be paroled then, according to Trooper Kocher-Fry. She also said Givbon was likely to be paroled this fall — maybe as early as September.

But, it was revealed during the hearing that Kevin Beattie was not his name, after all.

“Mister Beattie” was in fact Bernard Grover, a man from Philadelphia who began using his half-brother’s name when arrested in the early 2000s. Grover had an extensive record of nonviolent offenses that included burglaries.

While Grover was listed in Pennsylvania Department of Corrections records under “Kevin Beattie,” his fingerprint records corroborated that he was the same person as “Bernard Grover.”

Although fingerprint records tied Grover’s criminal record together, nobody in the Department of Corrections or Philadelphia Police Department had ever bothered to correct his name in the system.

The department of corrections never cross-referenced the records to determine his real name.

And so for Grover’s 20 years of incarceration leading to his death, corrections officers and fellow inmates never knew his real name.

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