(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) A Philadelphia man pleaded guilty to killing a man over a $1,200 drug debt, seven years after his 1993 murder conviction was overturned due to a faulty trial.
Shaurn Thomas—who served 24 years of a life sentence for the 1993 murder—pleaded guilty to third-degree murder after shooting Akeem Edward in 2023.
According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Thomas was convicted of the 1993 murder and robbery of a businessman.
The Innocence Project in action. From @PhillyInquirer https://t.co/kPNAFNSUYk pic.twitter.com/ZaeomUIDfu
— Byron York (@ByronYork) December 7, 2024
In 2017, a judge vacated Thomas’s life sentence after newly uncovered evidence showed detectives knew he had a potential alibi but failed to verify it.
He was awarded $4.1 million in taxpayer money by Philadelphia’s government following the conviction’s overturn.
Despite prosecutors at the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office stating they did not fully believe Thomas was innocent, they chose not to retry the case after Larry Krasner, a left-wing, Soros-backed prosecutor, became Philadelphia’s district attorney.
As reported by The Inquirer, once in office Krasner “dramatically expanded the office’s focus on reviewing old convictions.”
After 24 years behind bars for a crime he didn't commit, Shaurn Thomas is finally a free man https://t.co/RLfQ1IYXRf pic.twitter.com/nfszw8XdCZ
— People (@people) May 26, 2017
Fast forward to 2024, Thomas is now heading back to prison after shooting Edward over a $1,200 drug debt in what could have been a murder prevented had Krasner retried his 1993 case.
As reported by The Inquirer, Edward was the childhood friend of Thomas’s former partner, Ketra Veasy, whose convicted felon brother had his murder case overturned in 2019.
Thomas and Edward entered a cocaine deal, where Edward was expected to pay Thomas $1,200 in profits over a sandwich baggie of cocaine. After Edward failed to repay the money, Thomas and Veasy went to look for him, with Thomas fatally shooting him in Delaware.
Veasy claimed in court she was unaware Thomas had a gun on him. Once Thomas shot Edward, he hopped on Veasy’s vehicle and said, “He’s hit, he’s down, just drive.”
While driving back to Philadelphia, Thomas reportedly told Veasy this was “his third homicide” and that “he can’t go back to jail.”
Thomas threatened Veasy to “keep” her mouth “quiet or else,” ordering her not to speak about the murder. Thomas was ultimately caught after confessing to the crime to a police informant.
Thomas is set to be sentenced in February 2025.
— The Innocence Project overturned the murder conviction of a man named Shaurn Thomas who had already served 24 years in prison
— The man received a $4.1 million payout from the city of Philadelphia for the wrongful conviction
— The man met the childhood friend of a… https://t.co/fjGqoGcR9K pic.twitter.com/nDZTl7t8ta— Wesley Yang (@wesyang) December 7, 2024
