GUILTY PA - Adel 'Mark' Malek, 59, killed in store robbery, Allentown, 22 July 1998

An Emmaus man charged in the 1998 killing of an Allentown grocer was ordered Wednesday to face trial in the killing, a district judge ruled.

John M. Edinger, 44, is charged in the killing of Adel A. Malek. At Wednesday's preliminary hearing, prosecutors also added a robbery charge...

Malek, a successful pharmacist in Egypt, moved his family from Cairo to Allentown in 1993 in hopes of a better life and education for his children.

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If you walked into Adel Malek's store on any day of the week, neighbors said, he would greet you with a hearty "hello."

If you wanted to buy an ice cream sandwich or a loaf of bread, but came up a dollar or two short, he would cover you, saying you could pay him back later.

But on a summer day in 1998, when one of Malek's regular customers went into his grocery store, Lehigh County First Assistant District Attorney Steven Luksa told a judge Wednesday, she didn't hear his customary greeting. Instead, she found him lying on the floor, bleeding from a killer's bullets.

The man behind those four bullets, John Edinger, 44, pleaded guilty Wednesday to third-degree murder, nearly 18 years after he went into Malek's store on the 1300 block of West Union Street — "dope sick," prosecutors said — looking for drug money.

As part of a plea deal, Edinger will serve 20 to 40 years in a state prison. Judge Robert L. Steinberg ordered Edinger to have no contact with Malek's family.

The plea deal negated the need for a trial, and allowed Edinger to avoid more serious charges of first- or second-degree murder. Although prosecutors believe Edinger went into Malek's store to commit a robbery, they didn't pursue charges for robbery because they lacked evidence, like receipts from the cash register, Luksa said.

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