'Grandma' allegedly killed in house for her drugs and cash

ACCORDING TO evidence in court yesterday, 67-year-old Dollie Evans, a Holmesburg woman affectionately known as "Grandma" on her block, was fatally shot in the back of her head because she sold crack cocaine from her home and kept wads of cash.

Another woman, Ruby Thomas, 57, who lived in Evans' house, was also shot to death and strangled with an electrical cord, authorities said.

Defendant James Mears, 25, was held for trial in the women's Aug. 23 slayings after a preliminary hearing yesterday before Municipal Judge Patrick Dugan. Mears is charged with murder, robbery and gun offenses.

In a statement to homicide detectives, Mears, who had also been living in Evans' house, said that on that August day, he got a phone call from a guy named "Mann." He and Mann agreed to set up a robbery in which Mears would leave the door to the house unlocked and Mann would come in and rob Evans and pretend to rob Mears, too.

About 15 minutes after they talked, Mann entered the house on Vista Street near Edmund, armed with a silver revolver, and "demanded money from me and 'Grandma,' " Mears said in his statement, read by Homicide Detective James Crone in court.

After ordering Evans to take out her purse, Mann shot Evans and then went upstairs, the statement said. "Then I heard a second gunshot," Mears said in the statement. Authorities said the women were shot about 5:30 p.m.

Mears said Mann took between $700 to $800 in cash and about $500 worth of drugs. They were supposed to share the loot a week later, but Mears said he got locked up before then.

Asked why he would help another man rob "Grandma," Mears replied in his statement: "For the money. It was rough times."

Shown a photo of a man named Ronald Dorsey by detectives, Mears identified him as Mann.

Assistant District Attorney Jude Conroy, asked after the hearing if it's true that another man shot the women, said the "investigation continues."

Conroy said Mears began living in Evans' house about two months before the slayings. Mears had run away from a halfway house, and after being thrown out of a home where his girlfriend lived, he went to live with Evans, whom he got to know through a friend, Conroy said.

Evans was selling crack cocaine from her house, the prosecutor said, and then Mears became involved in selling the drugs, the prosecutor said.

Stephen Gross, one of Mears' two public defenders, argued in court there was no evidence of first-degree murder or evidence that Mears possessed a gun.

But Conroy argued that according to Mears' statement, Mears knew his accomplice had a gun and a history of violence, and after Evans was shot, Mears did not stop his accomplice from going upstairs, where there was a tussle and another gunshot, and Thomas was killed. Cops have said that Thomas was killed because she was a potential witness.