Aug 29, 2008

Fifth suspect arrested in Mountain View homicides

She was about to get on plane, police say

By Banks Albach / Daily News Staff Writer

Mountain View police said they arrested the fifth suspect in the double slaying of brother and sister Omar Aquino and Maria Teresa Sanchez-Aquino, catching her at Mineta San Jose International Airport on Thursday morning as she was trying to flee the state.

Police said Kim Thien Pham, 19, a resident of either San Jose or Morgan Hill, planned to board a flight at 10:30 a.m. but was detained outside of the security gate by Mountain View detectives 30 minutes before take-off, thanks to a tip they received Wednesday night. Police would not disclose where she was scheduled to land.

She was booked into the San Jose Main Jail on two counts of murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder and is being held without bail.

Pham's arrest came the day after Mountain View police announced that four of her six suspected accomplices in the double-murder were arrested last week and that she, along with Campbell resident Kenneth Ivory Thomas, 20, and his 17-year-old sister, Faith Thomas, were wanted and considered armed and dangerous. The Thomases are still at large.

The brother faces two counts of murder and conspiracy to commit murder, while his sister faces only the conspiracy charge. Their younger sister, Fame Ashley Thomas, 15, was arrested last Thursday and has been charged on two counts of murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Prosecutors plan to charge the sisters as adults.

Already in custody on double murder and conspiracy charges are San Jose residents Nicory Marquis Spann, 18, and David Adams, 20. Victoria Frances Thompson, 20, of Morgan Hill, was also arrested last week and faces the conspiracy charge. Spann was convicted earlier this year for selling a cocaine-based substance and served a four-month sentence in Santa Clara County, according to court documents.

Aquino, 24, and Sanchez-Aquino, 27, were shot to death in their home on the 1900 block of Plymouth Street in the early hours of June 28 after the seven suspects used text messaging to coordinate a robbery, and possibly the murder of the siblings, according to court documents.

Sanchez-Aquino's 8-year-old son was sleeping in a bedroom when officers entered the home on a welfare check sparked by reports of gunshots about 4:53 a.m. Officers found the siblings' bodies shortly after and took the boy out through the bedroom window to shield him from the sight. He's currently with family members.

Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney James Gibbons-Shapiro, who is handling the case, said the four suspects in custody before today have been arraigned and are being held on no-bail status. Although they're set to enter pleas today at 2 p.m. in Santa Clara County Superior Court, Gibbons-Shapiro said he expects the date to be continued.

Sgt. Detective Ken Leal said investigators have not recovered the murder weapon - a handgun - and are still piecing together who pulled the trigger. However, according to court documents, prosecutors say that Spann was the triggerman.

He said detectives are confident both parties knew each other and that all seven suspects were in the general area the night of the slayings.



E-mail Banks Albach at balbach@dailynewsgroup.com.