The man authorities say planned a drug-linked robbery that turned into a double homicide at a posh Northern Liberties apartment complex last month intends to surrender to police tomorrow, according to his lawyer.
James "Pooh" Wilson, 40, who has been the target of an intense law enforcement manhunt for two weeks, will turn himself in at the Police Administration Building, said Christopher Warren, a prominent defense lawyer who said Wilson had retained him.
"My client said he had nothing to do with the tragic events that occurred," said Warren, adding that Wilson had been aware for several days that the police wanted to speak with him and had been making preparations to surrender.
Warren told The Inquirer in an exclusive interview that he had no idea where his client had been staying, but that he'd had several phone conversations with him about the case.
Warren said Wilson, who has arrests for drug dealing and aggravated assault dating to the late 1980s, told him, "I didn't do this."
Authorities identified Wilson, also known as Keith Epps, as a key suspect in the homicide investigation during a news conference Friday.
Two other suspects have been arrested, and at least five others were being sought.
Police have said they believe Wilson sent four men to the Navona Building at the upscale Piazza at Schmidts complex in Northern Liberties to rob Rian Thal, a party planner and suspected drug trafficker who lived in a seventh-floor apartment there.
Thal, 34, and a friend, Timothy Gilmore, 40, of Ohio, were gunned down in the hallway in what police described as a robbery gone bad.
The shootings and several events leading up to them were captured by security cameras in the building, part of a $100 million residential-commercial project off Second Street near Hancock at the site of the former Schmidt's brewery.
Police announced Friday that they had an arrest warrant for Wilson in connection with a botched burglary attempt at the complex early on June 27, about 12 hours before the shootings.
Robert Keith, 27, an alleged accomplice, has been arrested and charged with burglary.
Police have identified one of the suspected shooters as Donnell Murchison, 32, and are searching for two other alleged gunmen and two people believed to have been lookouts. Authorities have not released their names.
Katoya Jones, 25, who lived on the second floor, was charged Thursday with murder and related offenses on allegations she helped the gunmen enter the building. Authorities said Wilson had recruited her to assist in the plot.
A security camera showed Jones letting one of the men into the apartment lobby. Cameras later recorded all three gunmen and a lookout on the seventh floor.
The shootings, too, were videotaped.
In another twist in the case, authorities allege that about 12 hours before the shootings, Wilson tried to break into what he believed was Thal's apartment. He, however, had the wrong address and broke down a door to an empty apartment on the sixth floor.
Whether a camera caught that event has not been disclosed.
The break-in is the basis for the burglary charges against Wilson and Keith. Police said they believe Jones let them into the building after meeting Wilson for drinks at a gentlemen's club that morning.
Jones was described as a sometime girlfriend of Wilson's. She was picked up for questioning two days after the shootings and charged July 2. She is being held without bail.
According to sources familiar with the case, she has said Wilson called her late Friday, June 26, and asked to meet her for a drink. He then recruited her to help in what she was told would be a burglary of Thal's apartment; Wilson allegedly believed cash and drugs were stored there.
After the murders, police found 4 kilograms of cocaine and $112,000 in Thal's apartment.
Warren said his client had denied any involvement in the murders or alleged burglary. He also said Wilson was concerned that police had been "rounding up, mistreating, coercing, and cajoling people that are close to him."
Warren said he was referring to Jones and another woman, Shahidah Sabree, who he said was brought in for questioning Wednesday afternoon and held "incommunicado" for at least 24 hours. Warren said detectives went to Sabree's house looking for Wilson and, when they didn't find him, took her into custody.
Warren, in what could be a preview of a defense argument, questioned whether Jones and Sabree were properly advised of their rights to have an attorney present when questioned and said any statement either had made should be suspect because of police interrogation tactics.
Police have said the investigation has been conducted properly.
Law enforcement sources have described Wilson as an up-and-comer in the drug underworld, a description that, through his lawyer, he adamantly denied Friday.
"He is not involved with drugs," said Warren, who said his client had served nearly seven years for a 1993 arrest for drug dealing and had been convicted in 1989 of aggravated assault and resisting arrest tied to a dispute after a traffic accident.
An assault case and a charge of driving under the influence that was dismissed in 2004 were filed against Keith Epps, according to court documents, an alias that Wilson sometimes uses.
Contact staff writer George Anastasia at 856-779-3846 or ganastasia@phillynews.com.
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