A man who was freed from prison after serving 24 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit has been jailed once again after making a chilling confession.
Shaurn Thomas, 50, had been sentenced to life in prison in 1992 for a murder he had not committed.
Thomas was freed in 2017 after his conviction was overturned and was given a $4.1 million settlement on his release.
However, he has been jailed once again after pleading guilty on Thursday to another murder committed in 2023, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Thomas has been convicted of fatally shooting his girlfriend’s friend, Akeem Edwards, last year after the 38-year-old father allegedly failed to pay him $1,200 for cocaine Thomas had given him to sell, according to the outlet.
The outlet added that the judge at the plea hearing appeared stunned to find out that Thomas would risk another jail sentence after having spent almost half of his life behind bars, especially when the sum was comparatively small compared to the multi-million dollar payout he'd received.
Common Pleas Court Judge Roxanne Covington asked Thomas in his hearing on Thursday: "Are these facts true?", to which he replied: "Yes, Your Honor."
As well as the murder charge, Thomas also pleaded guilty to conspiracy, illegal gun possession, and other crimes.
Edwards' family has told the Enquirer that they hope Thomas is made to spend the rest of his life behind bars, with his sentencing having been scheduled for February.
Edwards' sister, Tyeisha Marshall, told the outlet: "There’s not enough time for them to possibly give him."
Thomas had previously been jailed when he was 20 years old after being convicted by a jury of the second-degree murder of a North Philadephia businessman in a robbery gone wrong, in which the man was shot dead in 1990.
However, his conviction was overturned in 2017 after a judge deemed that there had been issues with the police investigation, including failure to verify Thomas's alleged alibi, as well as new information on interrogation tactics involving alleged coconspirators.
Investigators had honed in on Thomas based on statements made by two alleged coconspirators, whose accounts of the incident had shifted before they later recanted their testimony, with one claiming detectives had fed him a false story and assaulted him until he repeated it, according to the outlet.
The Pennsylvania Innocence Project had campaigned for Thomas's release, and while prosecutors said they were not completely convinced that Thomas was completely innocent in the murder, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office declined to retry his case.
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