Hours before Rian Thal and Timothy Gilmore were gunned down in the Piazza in June, the alleged triggerman said, the man who masterminded the murders called him with a business proposition.
According to Donnell Murchison's statement to authorities, which was read in yesterday's preliminary hearing in the case, Will "Pooh" Hook told him that he had a lead on a "sweet beat" - a robbery just waiting to be pulled off.
Hook knew of two "out of town boys" who were getting ready to travel back to Detroit with a pile of drugs and cash, Murchison said. The men were making a delivery to Thal, a 34-year-old party planner who police say dealt drugs out of her swank Piazza at Schmidts apartment in Northern Liberties and who Murchison says was in on the whole plan.
"Pooh said, 'Rian's cool. She's down with it,' " Murchison told police. Murchison said Pooh had assured him that all they had to do was "break her off," meaning share the profits of the robbery with Thal.
But the "sweet beat" went as sour as possible. The afternoon of June 27 would leave Thal and her drug associate Gilmore dead in the hall outside her seventh-floor apartment - and eight others behind bars.
Thal was shot in the head at close range. Gilmore, 40, was riddled with bullets in a cheek, his neck, his chest, an arm, the back of a leg, a hip, and fingers, likely because he tried to defend himself, authorities said.
All the defendants were held for trial after the Municipal Court hearing, during which prosecutors announced that Katoya Jones, the woman who gave the alleged killers access to the upscale apartment complex, will plead guilty and testify.
Jones, 25, gave detailed testimony yesterday about the botched robbery, implicating Hook, 40, and Murchison, 33, whom she identified as the man Hook had asked her to let into the building.
Jones is the only defendant to agree to plead guilty - in her case, to third-degree murder - and cooperate, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Selber said.
During the three-hour hearing, Judge David C. Shuter and a packed courtroom heard detectives read statements from Murchison; Robert Keith, 27; Langdon Scott, 26; and Antonio Wright, 28.
Those men can be seen on surveillance videos taken inside and outside the building the day of the murders, police have said. Some allegedly were videotaped staking out Thal's apartment and firing at Gilmore.
Hook and Edward Daniels, 42, have not given statements to police. Hook's attorney, Christopher Warren, yesterday cast doubt on the credibility of Jones and the others who gave statements.
"How many days did they keep Jones without sleep and without access to a lawyer?" Warren asked afterward, referring to Jones' testimony that homicide detectives questioned her for two days.
Jones said she initially had lied to police but decided to confess after detectives showed her a photo of Thal's corpse, shot point-blank.
"I felt bad for her," Jones said. "I couldn't believe she was dead over something I was involved in."
Jones, dressed in black pants and a suit jacket, was led into court by deputies who walked her within feet of the other defendants.
As she settled nervously into the witness stand, Selber's co-prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Carlos Vega, told attorneys for Jones' codefendants that she would plead guilty to two counts of murder.
Jones, 25, pointed out Hook - whom she called "Pooh" and who is also known as Keith Epps and James Wilson - and described him as a friend she had known for 10 years.
The day before the murders, she said, Hook called and asked if she would let some men into the Navona building. Jones was moving into a second-floor apartment there from a Piazza building next door.
Around midnight, Jones said, she picked up Hook at Delilah's Den on Spring Garden Street, and they drove around.
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