Lawyer: Accused mastermind of Piazza at Schmidts killings a dupe

The lawyer for Will "Pooh" Hook - the alleged mastermind of the 2009 double murder at the Piazza at Schmidts complex - asked a Philadelphia jury today to acquit him, calling Hook a dupe and theorizing that victim Rian Thal was executed because drug dealers suspected she might a federal informant.

In a two-hour closing to the Common Pleas Court jury of seven women and five men, defense attorney Christopher D. Warren tried to weave together the strands of a conspiracy theory he raised in questioning witnesses during two weeks of testimony.

Warren told the jury that his theory of an an execution of Thal, 34, and friend Timothy Gilmore, 40, was more plausible that than the prosecution's theory of two people killed in a drug robbery gone wrong.

Warren maintained that Hook had dropped out of the scheme earlier the day of the shootings, after burglarizing a Piazza apartment he thought stored a cache of cash and drugs.

By the time of the killings, Warren said, Hook was not on the scene.

"Not a blessed thing got stolen, not a blessed thing," said Warren, referring to what prosecutors said was an attempt to rob Thal and Gilmore in the hallway outside her posh Piazza apartment. "So maybe, just maybe, this botched robbery was to cover-up an execution of someone thought to be an informant."

Warren's theory was mocked by Assistant District Attorney Carlos Vega, who told the jury that "the most obvious conclusion is the right one . . . He talks about everything else but what happened - somebody got killed."

Vega said the evidence - including cellphone records of calls from Hook to the gunmen around the time of the June 27, 2009 murder - all pointed to Hook as the mastermind and Antonio Wright and Edward Daniels the gunmen he recruited.

Vega maintained that Hook sat outside the Piazza's Navona building in a van while his gunmen tried to pull off the botched robbery of Thal.

Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart told the jurors to return to the city's Criminal Justice Center Wednesday morning for instructions in the law and the start of deliberations.

None of the three on trial - Hook, 43, also known as Keith Epps; Daniels, 44, and Wright, 30 - testified in their defense.

All are charged with felony murder - killing during another serious crime - and face mandatory life terms without chance of parole if the jury finds them guilty.

They were among eight people arrested in the June 27, 2009 shootings of Rian Thal, 34, and friend Timothy Gilmore, 40, in the new, upscale Piazza complex in Northern Liberties.

Four of the eight pleaded guilty before jury selection began Nov. 7; a final defendant, arrested a year after the shootings, will be tried later.

Prosecutors say the gunmen confronted Thal, a party planner, and Gilmore, an Ohio-based long-distance trucker, who were both also dealing drugs.

Gilmore tried to flee and the gunmen opened fire, killing him and Thal.

The gunmen fled without taking what they came for: more than $100,000 in cash and 8-1/2 pounds of cocaine police later found in Thal's apartment.

Lawyers for three ended their cases Monday without calling witnesses and lawyers for Daniels and Wright made their closings to the jury.