Aug 30, 2008

Double homicide suspects appear in court

Several have past drug convictions

By Banks Albach / Daily News Staff Writer

Clad in prison jumpsuits and bound in chains, five of the young suspects in the double murder of a brother and sister in Mountain View appeared briefly in Santa Clara County Superior Court on Friday afternoon but did not enter pleas.

The suspects, who range in age from 15 to 20, were arrested separately over the last eight days by Mountain View police in connection with the slaying of Omar Aquino, 24, and his sister Teresa Maria Sanchez-Aquino, 27, on June 28.

Prosecutors believe the five suspects, along with Kenneth Ivory Thomas, 20, and his 17-year-old sister Faith Thomas, who are both at large, conspired to rob and possibly murder the siblings at their home on the 1900 block of Plymouth Street in Mountain View.

Kenneth Thomas is wanted on double murder charges and one count of conspiracy to commit murder, and his sister is wanted on one conspiracy count. Police consider the two armed and dangerous.

Court documents show the group used cellular text messaging to coordinate the crime, which also involved 15-year-old Fame Ashley Thomas, a sister of the two suspects at large. Through text messages, they lured Omar Aquino to the movies beforehand and signaled to each other once they arrived at his house later.

Michael David Adams, 20, Nicory Marquis Spann, 18, Victoria Frances Thompson, 20, and Fame Ashley Thomas all appeared in court at 2 p.m. Friday and were granted a month extension by Superior Court Judge Jerome S. Nadler to enter pleas. Adams, Spann and Thomas, who stayed in the hallway during the appearance outside of public view, each face two counts of murder and a count of conspiracy to commit murder. Thompson faces just the conspiracy charge. The four are to appear next in court on Sept. 29 at 2 p.m.

A fifth suspect, Kim Thien Pham, 19, was arrested Thursday at Mineta San Jose International Airport as she was attempting to board a flight out of state. Pham was arraigned Friday with her alleged accomplices and will appear in court next Friday at 2 p.m. to possibly enter a plea.

Spann's attorney, Edward M. Souza, said he and the other suspects' public defenders need the extra four weeks to get familiar with the case. Both of the teenagers are being charged as adults.

Outside of the courtroom, a father of one suspect went over the initial complaint against his son with a different attorney. He declined to comment about the murder charges.

Mountain View police announced the arrests at a press conference Wednesday. Detectives revealed little information then, mainly that Aquino's house was ransacked when police arrived around 5 a.m., leading them to believe that robbery was a motive. Detectives did not find any drugs in the house and have not secured the murder weapon, which they believe to be a handgun.

Prosecutors say they are confident that Spann pulled the trigger man and that the group tied the siblings up, threatened them with the gun and ransacked the house, eventually making off with an Apple iPhone and other electronics. They fled in two vehicles, five in one and Spann in another driven by Pham, who was waiting in the car during the robbery, according to court documents. The 911 call of shots fired came in at 4:54 a.m. and police arrived shortly after to find the victims. Officers also found Sanchez-Aquino's 8-year-old son sleeping in the adjacent bedroom. He's been with family members since the shooting.

Police and prosecutors believe the seven suspects knew Aquino, and possibly his sister, but have not nailed down why they would have wanted to rob him. Besides being friends, the one thread that links four of the suspects, based on criminal histories, is drugs. The two juveniles have not been arrested before in Santa Clara County.

Pham was arrested and convicted of possessing a small amount of marijuana and one tab of ecstasy on Aug. 10, 2007. She had the charge reduced to a misdemeanor and was placed on probation. Thompson was convicted of selling crack cocaine on Oct. 18, 2007, landing her in jail for six months with three years probation.

Spann had just finished serving a four-month sentence for selling crack cocaine and Michael David Adams has two strikes against him - one conviction for selling crack cocaine on Feb. 8, 2006, for which he served four months, and another conviction for selling crack cocaine and using a minor to sell the drug on Aug. 29, 2007. He was sentenced to one year in county jail for the second offense, according to court documents.



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