Posted on 07/02/2009 4:46:22 PM PDT by Colonel Kangaroo
Police don't believe the woman knew the victims
Philadelphia Police have arrested an alleged planner of the violent double murder of Rian Thal and Timothy Gilmore.
Katoya Jones, 25, was arrested Thursday and charged with murder, conspiracy, robbery, burglary, criminal trespass, possession of an instrument of crime. She lives in the same apartment complex as Thal, police said.
Thal, 34, and Gilmore, 40, of Ohio, were gunned down inside The Navona at Schmidt's, a trendy apartment complex in Northern Liberties, just after 6 p.m. last Saturday. Investigators believe found four kilos of cocaine and more than $100,000 in cash inside Thal's apartment.
Surveillance video caught Jones walking into the apartment building and getting onto an elevator with one of the assailants, according to police. That man, in turn, opened the front door of the building for three other men who ambushed and murdered the duo steps from Thal's condo door.
Jones' arrest comes as a surprise to many. She has no criminal record and may not even know Thal or Gilmore, Police Sgt. Ray Evers told the Inquirer. Investigators have been focusing their efforts on locating the four unidentified men and a fifth man who was inside Thal's apartment during the shootings.
That man is believed to be Gilmore's Ohio roommate. He was seen on security cameras leaving the apartment after the shootings -- calmly walking past the gruesome murder scene and getting on an elevator with a duffle bag thrown over his shoulder. He and Gilmore may have used a trucking company as a front for drug trafficking. Police impounded their tractor-trailer near The Piazza at Schmidt's, but did not find any traces of drugs.
Thal, an event planner and promoter known as "the white girl" in the hip-hop nightlife scene, became a big-time dealer with a specialty powder cocaine she supplied to other dealers, sources told the Daily News. Her funeral was Tuesday.
Drug dealers killed. So nu?
I’m still stuck on the “NoLibs” deal. I like it!
Thanks. Dangerous way of life, dealing drugs.
ping
Not Guilty, but still dead!
looks like "the white girl" be the DEAD girl now...
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