Woman pleads guilty in Piazza at Schmidts killings

Katoya Jones had hoped to make $50,000 or $60,000 for just a few minutes' work - the time it took to open the door of her apartment building in the Piazza at Schmidts and let a man into the lobby.

Jones, who lived at the upscale Piazza apartment complex in Northern Liberties during the summer of 2009, knew the man was part of a plan to steal cash and drugs from an apartment elsewhere in the building. Authorities believe an old friend of Jones' set up the scheme, then persuaded Jones to lend a hand by helping several would-be thieves get inside.

Jones' willingness to open the lobby's glass door led to one of the most sensational crimes the city has seen in recent years: the June 2009 killings of Rian Thal and Timothy Gilmore, who were gunned down by three men outside Thal's apartment in what police have described as a drug robbery gone wrong.

On Monday, Jones, 26, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, robbery, and conspiracy for her role in the killings. She is to be sentenced next year.

Dressed in a black suit jacket and pants, Jones was subdued and said little during the proceedings before Common Pleas Court Judge Benjamin Lerner. More than once, Jones glanced over her shoulder to where her mother was sitting with several relatives, and at times she appeared to be struggling to hold back tears.

Jones' attorney, Robert Mozenter, described his client as having a strong educational background and a supportive family. She had a good job before her arrest, he said, and was renting a brand-new apartment in one of the city's trendiest neighborhoods.

"I just don't know how to explain why she's sitting here," Mozenter told Lerner. "She's intelligent, she's articulate, she has a good family. . . . I'm sure that whenever she gets out of prison, she will be a productive member of society."

Mozenter said that Jones never intended for anyone to be hurt that day, and that Jones was suffering for what she did.

"She got herself involved with the wrong people, for the promise of quick money," Mozenter said. "She is completely remorseful."

Eight people have been charged in the slayings of Thal and Gilmore, including Jones, three men alleged to have acted as the triggermen, and Will "Pooh" Hook, the alleged mastermind. Jones is the first person to plead guilty in the case, which is scheduled to go to trial in November 2011.

Police have said Thal, 34, known as an event planner at local clubs, was a drug dealer. After her death, police found more than eight pounds of cocaine and $100,000 in cash in her apartment. Gilmore, 40, a former Detroit firefighter who lived in Ohio, was a long-haul trucker who police said dealt drugs on the side.

Prosecutors have not said how long a prison term they will seek for Jones, whose crimes carry a maximum penalty of 180 years. There is no mandatory minimum, meaning the state could recommend a far shorter sentence.

Jones has told police Hook was a friend she met as a teenager. On the night before the killings, Jones told police Hook had called and asked her to help him get into a building at the Piazza. Jones has said she believed she was helping set up a burglary of an empty apartment, and she told police Hook believed Thal had $500,000. Jones expected that if she helped, her cut of the profits would be between $50,000 and $60,000.

The next afternoon, June 27, Hook allegedly asked Jones to go downstairs and "let his man in." Surveillance cameras captured Jones opening the door for alleged lead gunman Donnell Murchison, who later let in three other men. Police said three gunmen hid in the stairwells near Thal's seventh-floor apartment, and with help from a lookout on a lower floor waited for Thal and Gilmore to return from an errand outside.

The men ambushed Thal and Gilmore and shot them multiple times before Thal could open her door. The gunmen fled with nothing, police said.

Jones, who confessed to police after her arrest in the weeks after the killings, has spent the last 16 months tortured by thoughts of her role in the slayings, Mozenter said.

Jones has said she went "numb" when she learned two people had been killed. Later, when police took Jones into custody and showed her a photo of Thal's body, Jones recognized Thal as someone she had seen before. Under questioning from Assistant District Attorney Carlos Vega at a 2009 hearing, Jones acknowledged that realization "broke her heart."

Since her arrest, Mozenter said, Jones has been plagued by nightmares about the shootings, and for a period of time was suicidal.

Unlike the others charged in the case, some of whom have criminal records and one of whom is a convicted drug dealer, Jones has no criminal history as an adult or a juvenile. Jones joined the U.S. Army after graduating from high school and was honorably discharged after a year, Mozenter said. Mozenter declined to comment on the circumstances surrounding his client's discharge, but honorable discharges are typically granted to members of the military who have had good records of conduct.

Jones enrolled in college briefly before leaving for a job at a pharmaceutical company, where Mozenter said she worked for about five years until her arrest.

After the plea, Mozenter said Jones' family had always been proud of her for having done so well with her life.

"I've never seen anybody who was in this kind of situation who had this kind of background," he said. "She would do anything to change what happened."