Prosecutors filed a notice Wednesday to preserve their right to pursue capital punishment against the four men charged in the deaths of Rian Thal, 34, and Timothy Gilmore, 40. All eight defendants in the case were arraigned that day, and their next hearing was scheduled for Nov. 12.
Prosecutors theorize that Will "Pooh" Hook, 40, plotted to rob Thal and Gilmore of drugs and money, but the three men he sent to carry out the plan on June 27 shot them outside Thal's Northern Liberties apartment.
The gunmen left with nothing. Police found more than $100,000 and eight pounds of cocaine in Thal's apartment.
Hook told Donnell Murchison, one of the accused gunmen, that Thal, a party planner with connections to the drug underworld, was "down with" the plan, according to Murchison's statement to police.
Hook wanted to rob two "out-of-town boys" from Detroit who were delivering a load of drugs to Thal and preparing to leave town with a pile of cash and drugs, Murchison, 33, said.
Gilmore was a former Detroit firefighter who drove a tractor-trailer, which police believe was a front for drug-running. After the shootings, surveillance cameras at the Piazza captured a man leaving Thal's apartment carrying a duffel bag.
Federal authorities arrested that man in Texas, but his identity and any possible charges have not been revealed.
Assistant District Attorney Edward McCann, head of the Homicide Unit, said yesterday there were several aggravating factors that would allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty, including robbery and the fact that there was more than one homicide.
He said prosecutors would decide in the next two to three months whether to seek the death penalty. The notice filed this week merely preserves their right to do so.
Murchison, in fact, gave his statement to police on the condition that he not face the death penalty. The other two accused shooters are Antonio Wright, 28, and Edward Daniels, 42.
Hook's attorney, Christopher Warren, said he planned to file a motion to dismiss the first-degree murder charge. He said prosecutors did not present enough evidence at a preliminary hearing last month to sustain it.
"It's a little premature for them to seek the death penalty when they haven't even established a case for first-degree murder," he said.
At the preliminary hearing, prosecutors said defendant Katoya Jones, 25, planned to plead guilty and testify.
Jones, who lived at the Piazza and was a friend of Hook's, said she agreed to let Murchison into the building for a cut of the robbery take.
Three other men also face charges for various alleged roles in the plot to rob Thal and Gilmore.
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