Piazza suspect surrenders: Accused of robbery, double homicide

By KITTY CAPARELLA
Philadelphia Daily News

caparek@phillynews.com 215-854-5880

A convicted drug dealer who allegedly set up the June 27 robbery-turned-double slaying outside a drug-and cash-filled apartment in the trendy Piazza at Schmidts surrendered to police last night.

Shortly before 8 p.m., Will "Pooh" Hook, 40, also known as James Wilson and Keith Epps, arrived holding a red Bible at the Police Administration Building with a seven-person entourage, including his attorney, Christopher Warren, in a late-model black Cadillac.

Walking with the 6-3, 260-pound brown-eyed Hook, who is bald with a mustache and goatee, were his parents, sister, two friends and the Rev. Stanley Jones, pastor of the Rock of Ages Evangelistic Church.

Asked if he set up the robbery-turned-homicides, Hook remained silent.

"He has nothing to say, but as we have said, he has nothing to do with this," his attorney said.

Hook's mother said: "God has the last say."

Warren gave two homicide detectives a July 13 letter saying that he represented Hook in the outstanding burglary warrant and any charges arising from the deaths of Rian Thal and Timothy Gilmore, fatally shot June 27 outside Thal's seventh-floor apartment in the Navona building at the upscale complex in Northern Liberties.

A police source said that three shooters and a lookout tried to get into Thal's apartment, but couldn't, so they laid in wait.

Warren said that his client wanted to turn himself in on Friday - but Warren was unavailable - after police issued a warrant for Hook's arrest in connection with the attempted burglary of a sixth-floor vacant apartment.

Police say that Hook apparently believed the apartment was Thal's.

"If he did know Thal, why wouldn't he get the right door to kick in?" asked Warren rhetorically. "He denies breaking into the [sixth-floor] apartment."

Sources close to the investigation said Thal operated a stash house, storing drugs for Hook and other dealers, and sold drugs herself. Buyers would come over to pick up as much as a kilo of illegal drugs, the sources said.

The June 27 operation was intended to be a robbery of a drug dealer, who was expected not to report it to police, sources said.

Hook's surrender was delayed more than six hours, in part because of his attorney's unrelated federal court case, and later, when Hook wanted to kiss his 14-year-old daughter, Nyzasia, one of his five children, before he left, Warren said.

Warren accused Katoya Jones, 25, of wrongly identifying Hook as the mastermind of the robbery gone awry, after she was questioned for several days by homicide detectives.

Last Thursday, Jones was charged in the murder conspiracy with letting the first gunman into the Navona building.

More than 12 hours before the slayings, Jones and Hook met up at a club - identified by police as Delilah's Den - and Hook offered her an unspecified amount of money to open the door to the apartment building, according to a source close to the investigation.

Jones told police that she had no idea how things would come out and did not give the victim's apartment number to Hook, nor did she know Thal, a source familiar with the statement said.

The source said they believe Jones was in it for the money, after she was told there were drugs and money in Thal's apartment and that no one would be home for the theft. Cops later found four kilos of cocaine and more than $100,000 in cash there.

Jones' attorney, Greg Pagano, said his client knew Hook for "four or five years" but she has never had an intimate or romantic relationship with him.

"She's holding up incredibly well considering the circumstances . . . ," Pagano said. "She is not as involved as portrayed in the media.

"In a case like this, it's a question of what was in her mind and what was she opening a door to."

Jones served one year - around 2003-04, in the Army in Hawaii, where she also attended University of Hawaii as a biology student. She now works as a biotechnician for Imclone Systems, a drug manufacturer, and was moving into her apartment at the upscale Piazza that week, Pagano said.

Warren said that Hook's aliases are the result of two prior convictions. Twenty years ago, he identified himself as James Wilson when arrested and later convicted of selling 106 grams of powder cocaine.

In 1998, he was on parole for the drug conviction when he and a buddy got into an automobile accident. Both men got out of the car, his buddy hit the driver of the other car with a belt, said his attorney.

Hook, who feared his parole would be revoked, gave police the name Keith Epps, and was convicted of aggravated assault. Two other arrests - one for driving under the influence and the other for simple assault, were dismissed, Warren said.

Police have arrested one of the men allegedly involved in the Piazza slayings, Robert Keith, and are looking for Donnell Murchison, 32, of West Oak Lane, as well as two other men whose names are not known. *

CURRENTLY SHOWING ON PHILLY.COM