A Philadelphia man who served 24 years behind bars for murder before being exonerated and given $4.1m is heading back to prison over a separate killing.
Shaurn Thomas, 50, was convicted of slaying a businessman in 1992 and later sentenced to life in prison before being exonerated in 2017.
Now Thomas has pleaded guilty to third-degree felony murder after killing 38-year-old Akeem Edwards last year over a $1,200 drug debt. He’s now expected to serve a significant remainder of his life behind bars.
Upon his exoneration, Thomas met Ketra Veasy through a network of other exonerated individuals. He reportedly asked her to connect him with Edwards, who had been her childhood friend, to see if he would sell cocaine for him, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
The two men met up and Thomas gave Edwards a sandwich bag filled with drugs. He told Edwards to bring him $1,200 in profits but the man never paid him.
In January 2023, Thomas and Veasy were driving through a neighborhood looking for Edwards and spotted him, got out of the car and shot him dead, according to the outlet.
Prosecutors said that Thomas reportedly told her it was his “third homicide” and “he can’t go back to jail.” He then warned her to keep quiet about the killing “or else.”
A federal informant later told Philadelphia homicide detectives that Thomas had talked to him about the case and said he had put a hit out on Veasy. Police then moved to search Thomas’s Chester County home, where they found five guns and a Gap hoodie that looked like the one worn during the shooting.
Both Thomas and Veasy were subsequently charged with murder. Veasy later agreed to help investigators and testified against Thomas for less serious charges. She has pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and conspiracy and is awaiting sentencing.
Thomas’s sentencing is scheduled for February.
