A second man is charged in a fatal Norristown home invasion
Rashaan Stevenson is accused of plotting to shoot and rob a Norristown drug dealer last year.
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After more than a year on the run, a Reading man was arrested Friday for his role in killing a Norristown drug dealer during a home-invasion robbery last year, prosecutors said.
Rashaan Stevenson, 34, has been charged with first-, second- and third-degree murder, as well as burglary, robbery and firearms offenses. He remained in custody, denied bail given the nature of the charges against him.
Stevenson and another man, Brandon Thompson, 32, worked together in April 2019 to rob Alonzo J. Anthony, 28, while Anthony’s roommate and her two young children were home, authorities said. Thompson had previously bought marijuana and prescription painkillers from Anthony, and knew where he lived in Norristown, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest.
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Investigators arrested Thompson last year after linking him to the crime through a hat he had worn during the robbery and left at the scene, investigators said. His case on murder, robbery and related charges is pending.
Stevenson became a suspect as detectives analyzed Thompson’s phone and found that he had communicated with Stevenson frequently.
In addition, records showed that a license-plate reader mounted on a police car had recorded Stevenson’s vehicle near Anthony’s home on the day of the shooting. Stevenson’s cell phone records also showed he was nearby at that date and time, according to the affidavit.
At the time of Anthony’s killing, Stevenson was on parole for an unrelated murder that bore striking similarities. In 2006, Stevenson, 20, arranged a meeting with Norristown marijuana dealer Michael McCray under the guise of a drug transaction, then acted as a lookout while three other men went in and killed him during a robbery.
He pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in that case and was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in state prison, but was released in 2016, court records show.