Woman gets probation for soliciting killing via Facebook

Some people use social media to vent, and some for commerce.

London Eley got in trouble for combining complaints - about her ex-boyfriend, the father of her child - and commerce: using Facebook to look for someone to kill him for $1,000.

On Tuesday, Eley, 19, of Southwest Philadelphia, showed she had at least learned the value of discretion. She spoke not a word except to plead guilty to conspiracy and begin five years of probation.

Defense attorney Gerald Stein said Common Pleas Court Judge Mary D. Colins approved the plea agreement. Colins sentenced Eley to three to 23 months in prison but immediately paroled her into probation because Eley was in prison for two months before posting $35,000 bail.

Eley was arrested in June after she posted a Facebook message that read, "I will pay somebody a stack [slang for $1,000] to kill my baby father."

Authorities say she got a bite, allegedly from 18-year-old Timothy Bynum of Darby Borough, and gave him the address and description of ex-beau Corey White.

What Eley apparently did not consider was that people other than out-of-work contract killers read Facebook - White's relatives, for example, who called police. Eley and Bynum were arrested before she could pay the money or he could carry out the hit.

White, 22, survived until August, when he was gunned down on a street in Southwest Philadelphia. The killing is still being investigated, though authorities say a dispute about bad marijuana - not Eley or Bynum - was behind the slaying.

Stein said Eley's plea agreement does not require her to cooperate with the prosecution or testify against Bynum. Assistant District Attorney John O'Neill said Bynum's trial is set for March 19.

As for Eley's friends in the Facebook universe, a telephone or personal visit will be the only way to get an update from London for the next five years.

In addition to anger-management counseling, Eley was barred by the judge from using social media or a computer during her probation.