Man ordered to stand trial in 2004 slaying

A West Philadelphia man who walked into a police station in September and confessed to killing a man 10 years ago was ordered Wednesday to stand trial for murder.

James King, 33, must face the charges in the Dec. 16, 2004, slaying of Raymond Thomas, 24, who was gunned down inside his West Philadelphia home.

Police said Thomas' body was found in a room of his third-floor apartment. He had been shot in the head. His 1-year-old son was in another part of the apartment. His arms had been bound with tape.

Testifying at King's preliminary hearing before Municipal Court Judge Teresa Carr Deni, Detective Francis Graf said he interviewed King at Southwest Detectives shortly after he confessed to officers at West Philadelphia's 18th District.

Graf read from a signed statement in which King confessed to killing and robbing Thomas, who had been his friend.

In the statement, Graf quoted King as saying he went to Thomas' apartment, in the 4900 block of Hazel Avenue, and told him to turn up the radio.

"I walked to the window and pulled the trigger," Graf read from King's statement.

"I took his money out of his pocket and a shoe box," Graf quoted King as saying.

Graf said that in the statement, King said he used a "nine," meaning 9mm semiautomatic, to kill Thomas and that he took a "nine" from Thomas.

Graf said that King said he bound the baby's arms so that he would not walk back into the room.

King, a thin man with a scruffy beard, sat in the courtroom with his eyes closed for most of the hearing.

Asked by defense attorney Roger Schrading whether he had noticed any indication that King was suffering from a mental illness during the interview, Graf said no.

Assistant District Attorney Joseph Whitehead Jr. noted that King had two previous convictions for narcotics possession in 2001.

After the hearing, when asked why King made the confession after nearly a decade, Whitehead said: "We don't know what motivated him. The police believe, maybe his conscience."

Whitehead said details given to police by King helped to corroborate his account of the slaying.

"He did walk in and say he wanted to talk," Whitehead said. "They listened to what he had to say and tried to confirm it."