Shooter at Piazza now refuses to testify

The trial in the 2009 double murders at the Piazza at Schmidts complex was thrown into turmoil Friday when the admitted shooter reneged on his promise to testify for the prosecution.

Donnell Murchison's refusal to testify brought the fifth day of the Common Pleas Court trial to an abrupt halt, made permanent by a fire drill requiring evacuation of the Criminal Justice Center.

Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart called it a day but ordered prosecution and defense lawyers to return Monday prepared to address the question of whether Murchison should be held in contempt of court and, if so, how the trial could proceed.

This followed a morning in which Murchison, 35, confirmed statements he gave police in which he said victim Rian Thal and her boss, nightclub owner Darryl Shuler, were in on the drug-robbery plot that ended in her death.

On Nov. 7, as jury selection was beginning, Murchison pleaded guilty to two counts of murder - of Thal, 34, a party planner, and Ohio-based truck driver Timothy Gilmore, 40. He was sentenced to two consecutive life terms.

His plea agreement, outlined to the jury by Assistant District Attorney Carlos Vega, requires Murchison to testify truthfully against the three on trial for murder: Will "Pooh" Hook, 43, also known as Keith Epps, the alleged mastermind, and alleged gunmen Edward Daniels, 44, and Antonio Wright, 30.

In addition to escaping the death penalty, the plea deal includes moving Murchison to an out-of-state federal prison to serve his sentence and protection for his mother, and his 2-year-old daughter and her 28-year-old mother.

"My family is being threatened," Murchison said then. "I don't want to put my family in harm's way for something I have done."

But when he took the witness stand Friday, Murchison's first words were, "I do not wish to testify."

Eventually, Murchison testified in name only. For almost two hours, Vega extracted a series of one-word answers confirming Murchison's two statements to detectives as Vega read them verbatim to the jury.

"I kept my promise, I'm taking care of your little girl," Vega reminded Murchison, referring to the protection for his family.

But by the end of an hour of often-sarcastic accusatory questioning by Christopher D. Warren, Hook's attorney, Murchison said he would not answer another question.

On Monday, Minehart could hold Murchison in contempt of court and order the jury to ignore his testimony because the defense was deprived of its constitutional right to cross-examine him.

But that could result in a defense motion for a mistrial and one to bar retrial on double-jeopardy grounds.

Defense lawyers could argue that a retrial should not take place because of "prosecutorial misconduct" - that prosecutors got Murchison's incriminating testimony before the jury although they knew he would balk at questioning.

Murchison himself could face serious consequences. The prosecution could withdraw its promise to house him in a federal prison or ensure his family's safety.

Prosecutors could also annul Murchison's plea agreement, and put the death penalty back on the table and take him to trial.

Earlier Friday, in questioning by Vega, Murchison confirmed that he told detectives that Hook called Thal moments before what was supposed to be a staged robbery to tell her his gunmen were on their way up to her seventh-floor apartment in the Piazza's Navona building.

Murchison described Shuler, who owned the now-closed Plush nightclub at Eighth and Callowhill Streets, where Thal was a manager, as Hook's "inside guy."

Murchison said Shuler supplied Hook information on the amount of drugs and cash police later found in Thal's apartment.

Shuler could not be reached for comment, but his attorney, Tariq Karim El-Shabazz, denounced Murchison's testimony.

El-Shabazz said Shuler cooperated and agreed to be questioned by police and prosecutors about the murders.

"It's been two years, and Darryl Shuler's name has never been on any arrest warrant and he's not sitting there with the other" defendants, El-Shabazz said. "That should give you an idea of the weight of that testimony."

El-Shabazz said there was "not one scintilla of evidence" linking Shuler to the robbery plot or Thal's and Gilmore's killings.

Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Selber, who is prosecuting the case with Vega, said she could not comment on Murchison's testimony about Shuler and his alleged role in the scheme.

Prosecution and defense lawyers have been barred from talking with reporters by a gag order.

Thal and Gilmore were shot dead in the hallway outside her seventh-floor apartment.

The gunmen confronted Thal and Gilmore, Gilmore tried to flee, and the gunmen opened fire.

The gunmen then fled, leaving behind what they came for: more than $100,000 in cash and 81/2 pounds of cocaine that police later found in Thal's apartment.