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Two men, including one convicted just a week ago in a city homicide case, have been arrested for allegedly shooting to death a Philadelphia man inside an apartment in the 500 block of Park Avenue in late August 2016, city police said Friday afternoon.
Joseph Coleman Jr., 37, of Williamsport, and James Rooks, 27, of New York City, have been charged in the shooting death of Christopher Wilkins, also 27, on Aug. 30, 2016.
"We have been working two-and-a-half years on this case," one veteran detective told the Sun-Gazette.
Wilkins was "subletting" the apartment and was believed to be "selling heroin and cocaine out of 505 Park Ave" investigators learned, Agent Trent Peacock said in an affidavit.
Coleman was convicted on Feb. 15 in county court of second degree murder for his part in the double slaying of Shane Wright, 25, and his 50-year-old mother, Kristine Kibler, during a home invasion at the family's house in the 600 block of Poplar Street back on Oct. 31, 2016.
In this latest case in which charges were filed on Thursday, Coleman and Rooks are alleged to have entered the Park Avenue apartment through a back door "to rob the victim of drugs and / or money," Peacock wrote in a criminal complaint.
On Oct. 28, 2016, three days before the double murder on Poplar Street, a source reported to investigators that Coleman "admitted to him on two separate conversations that he had shot the guy on Park Avenue," Peacock wrote in the affidavit.
Police said Coleman and Jordan Rawls, of Williamsport, entered the Poplar Street home and shot Wright to death near his front door and also shot his mother. She was pronounced dead upon arriving at the hospital, police said.
Wright's two children, ages 6 and 7; his sister, her boyfriend and their 2-year-old son were all in the home at the time of the shooting, but they were not injured, police said.
Coleman and Rawls, now 27, were arrested and charged with the murders as was Casey Wilson, who admitted to driving the two men to the Poplar Street address after the three men spent some time earlier that same evening at Coleman's city home near Brandon Park planning the robbery.
Coleman had known Wright to allegedly sell marijuana, according to police. The three men went to the house to rob Wright of drugs and money. Wilson stayed in the car during the double fatal home invasion, police said.
Wilson, 22, of Williamsport, who earlier pled guilty for his role in the killings, testified against Coleman as his recent trial. Rawls, now 27, is expected to go on trial in April.
"Through the course of the Wright and Kibler homicide investigation, additional evidence was established connecting Coleman (allegedly) with the Wilkins homicide," Peacock said in the affidavit. Additional information led investigators to Rooks' alleged involvement, the investigator added.
About 12:10 p.m. on August 30, 2016, police and paramedics were dispatched to the Park Avenue property to investigate a report of a possible shooting. When they arrived, Wilkins was laying face-down "unresponsive," according to court records.
Moments earlier, the 9-1-1 communications center had received a call after a woman walked into the first-floor apartment and saw a man "on the floor in a pool of blood," according to court records. Investigators determined that Wilkins died of a gunshot wound to the head.
Investigators alleged Coleman, a convicted drug dealer, and Rooks, convicted of felony burglary, entered the apartment through a door that was ajar and allegedly shot and killed Wilkins.
At the time of the shooting, two other people were asleep in the apartment, police said.
One told police they were awakened "by yelling, then a gunshot and (then saw) two men wearing masks flee out the back door," Peacock said in the affidavit.
Rooks, who was taken into custody on Thursday at an undisclosed location in the city, was arraigned before District Judge Allen P. Page III on charges of criminal homicide, robbery, convicted felon not to possess a firearm, carrying a firearm without a license, possession of an instrument of crime and conspiracy. He was automatically jailed without bail.
On Friday afternoon, Coleman was taken from the Lycoming County Prison and arraigned before District Judge Jon E. Kemp on the same set of charges. He, too, was incarcerated with no bail. He currently is awaiting sentencing following his conviction in the double murder case.