Drifter convicted in Philly slaying arrested in Ga.
A drifter who served time in a West Philadelphia slaying has been arrested in Athens, Ga., on charges of armed robbery.
A drifter who served time in a West Philadelphia slaying has been arrested in Athens, Ga., on charges of armed robbery.
Police said Echo Ward, 30, working with James Rice, 18, had lured a man to a motel room with the promise of sex for money and robbed him at knifepoint.
The pair was arrested Dec. 4, said Lt. Mike Tyndell, a detective with the Athens-Clark County Police Department.
He said Ward had been in the area for about two years and was suspected in similar stings.
Ward pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit aggravated assault in the 2008 beating death of Tim Bradly, 28, on the rooftop of an abandoned building known to squatters as Paradise City. Bradly was a drifter originally from West Deptford.
Ward was released in 2009. Fellow drifter Connor McCarthy, 30, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in Bradly's death and is serving a 12- to 24-year prison term.
At Ward's sentencing in 2009, Commons Pleas Court Judge Judge Benjamin Lerner chastised Ward for leaving her then 5-year-old son in California to pursue a life on the road.
"You abandoned your child for this cross-country adventure," Lerner said. "You were not there for your son. You were here for yourself. But you do have another chance. I hope you get it right this time."
@jgambardello