North Philly man goes to court for drugs, leaves with 2011 murder rap

A North Philadelphia man learned the hard way this week that his luck dodging the law on a murder charge wouldn't last forever.

Especially not if he was going to keep picking up new raps and showing up at the Criminal Justice Center, which is swarming with cops on any given day, for hearings.

Dante Hill, 25, who lived on Oxford Street near 17th in North Philly, went to the CJC for a court hearing on drug charges on Tuesday, police said.

Hill, a punk with a lengthy rap sheet, didn't make it out of the courthouse as a free man this time: Outside the courtroom on the 6th floor, he was met by police who arrested him for the 2011 shooting homicide of 34-year-old Raseen Wright at 13th and Brown streets, said Officer Christine O'Brien, a police spokeswoman.

Hill is facing a slew of charges, including murder, aggravated assault and illegal gun possession, in his latest of several arrests, court documents show. Since the July 6, 2011 fatal shooting of Wright, which also left a 24-year-old man with a nonfatal gunshot wound to the leg, police said, Hill has been nabbed numerous times on charges ranging from aggravated assault to illegal window tint and driving an unregistered car.

Apparently Hill figured since he walked out of court free so many other times, Tuesday wouldn't be any different. He was wrong.

The drug case Hill appeared in court Tuesday for was continued. He is currently being held without bail for Wright's murder and is scheduled to face a preliminary hearing in that case Aug. 20.