Murder victims Rian Thal and Timothy Gilmore are seen in this surveillance-camera heading to Thal's 7th- floor apartment, moments before they were shot dead. Police believe that Katoya Jones, a second-floor tenant who had dated one of the suspected shooters, let the killers into the building.
- Piazza slayings
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Cops: 'Party girl' slayers aided by tenant
MAYBE THE owners ought to do background checks on tenants who want to live in the trendy Piazza at Schmidts apartment complex in Northern Liberties.
Yesterday, homicide detectives arrested a second-floor tenant of the Navona building, Katoya Jones, 25, who dated one of the four gangsters suspected in Saturday's double slaying and who allegedy opened the building's front door for the first gunman a half-hour before the killings.
Minutes later, that man let in three others, who fatally shot party planner-turned-drug associate Rian Thal and Ohio truck driver Timothy Gilmore outside Thal's seventh-floor apartment at 5:44 p.m., police said.
The thugs may have planned to rob Thal, who apparently ran a stash house for a drug supplier, but "it turned deadly before they ever got into the apartment," a law-enforcement source said.
Homicide Capt. James Clark said that a "red flag went up" when investigators watched surveillance footage that showed one of the killers follow Jones into the lobby.
The two took an elevator to the second floor, where Jones lives. The killer and Jones walked down a hallway together, but the man then returned to the lobby and let three accomplices into the building.
"One thing led to another, and we realized she had some involvement in planning this whole thing," Clark said.
In fact, authorities said, Jones opened the door to the apartment building several times in the past to the would-be killers, who apparently cased the apartment building. On the surveillance footage, the four men appeared familiar with the layout of the building.
Jones is charged with murder, conspiracy, criminal trespass and related offenses.
Jones' boyfriend was identified as a "gangster from North Philadelphia," and one of the "longtime dope and stickup guys who thought they had an easy mark," the law-enforcement source said. "They've been in and out of jail, and been in the drug business all their lives."
The gang targets drug dealers in home invasions, kidnappings and stickups "because [the crimes] never get reported," the source said. "The only time it gets reported is when a bunch of people get shot."
Jones' boyfriend "talked her into assisting them," the source said.
While Thal planned public events at city restaurants and clubs, rubbing elbows with local celebrities from Mayor Nutter to professional athletes, she kept secret her alleged role in the drug business - running a "stash house."
"Thal was going to be the babysitter and sit on [drug] packages" at her apartment, said the source. "She has an associate, a black gangster," who would deliver drugs, and she "would get paid for allowing [them] to be dropped off there."
The way it usually works, the source said, is "whoever has the product" at a stash house will call and say "so-and-so is going to come by, give him" some.
"I don't think that she has the $300,000 to buy kilos herself," the source said.
Another focus of the investigation is "the big guy" who authorities believe was inside Thal's apartment when the murders occurred.
Clark said that "the big guy" was shown on surveillance tape leaving the area of Thal's apartment carrying a black duffel bag, which authorites suspect was filled with cocaine.
Investigators believe that Gilmore and "the big guy" came to Thal's apartment to drop off cocaine and were not aware of the four kilos of cocaine and $100,000 that police later found hidden in a closet.
Gilmore, a Detroit firefighter on disability who drove tractor trailers, and "the big guy" both resided in Canal Winchester, Ohio, but police said that "the big guy" carried a Texas driver's license.
Investigators would not say how they knew that he had a Texas license and would not provide more information about him.
Clark said that investigators do not believe "the big guy" was involved with the murders.
The surveillance video, police said, shows that the killers muttered a few words to Thal, then shot her in the head and wounded Gilmore several times. Thal died in front of her apartment door. Gilmore staggered down the hallway, then collapsed in a lifeless heap near the elevator.
Police initially speculated that the killers might have been polished hit men from out-of-town, because none bothered to hide his face from surveillance cameras.
In the end, police believe, they're just a band of violent, heartless locals. *
