Plea deal in Facebook murder plot spares woman longer jail time

One of the two people arrested last year for using Facebook to allegedly plot a man's murder pleaded guilty Tuesday morning so she could stay out of prison.

Loudon Eley, 19, who wrote online in May that she'd pay someone $1,000 to kill her baby's father, could have been sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison if convicted at trial this March.

But the plea deal with the District Attorney's Office spares her that possibility. The agreement required Eley to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit murder, for which she received 3 to 23 months in prison with immediate parole. Following parole, Eley must serve five years of supervised probation.

Common Pleas Judge Mary D. Colins also ordered her to get anger-management treatment and to stay off social-media networks.

"We decided it didn't make sense to take the risk of going to trial and getting convicted," defense attorney Gerald Stein said. "It was an agreement that was difficult to turn down."

Eley's co-defendant, Timothy Bynum, however, did turn down an identical plea deal offered to him on Dec. 16, according to his attorney, Lopez Thompson.

"My problem with it is, my kid is 18. He's never been in trouble. He had no intent to do anything," Thompson said Tuesday.

"I can't see, he can't see, and his family can't see, him having a felony conviction for conspiracy to commit murder that will follow him for the rest of his life," Thompson continued.

"He had no intent to do this. Maybe the girl did, but he looked at this like it was a joke."

Bynum, of Darby, who turned 19 on Christmas Eve, is scheduled to be tried before a jury March 19 for solicitation to commit murder, conspiracy and related charges.

Assistant District Attorney John O'Neill declined to specify the deal offered to him, but said it was no longer on the table.

The Southwest Philadelphia woman touched off the pair's legal troubles on May 23 when she posted to her Facebook page: "I will pay somebody a stack [$1,000] to kill my baby father."

She also wrote of Corey White: "DEAD! HATE HIM."

Bynum, using the screen name Tim "So Raw" Bynum, responded that he'd be her hit man, but would need the money up front.

White also saw her Facebook page and called police that day.

On Aug. 15, the day Eley and Bynum were ordered held for trial following a preliminary hearing, White was shot dead in a West Philadelphia drive-by.

Eley and Bynum, who were behind bars at the time, weren't implicated in the slaying.