A Scam Begets a Murder
(“Dollars and Sense,” Forensic Files)
When people kill for a small amount of cash, it’s only natural to think: Couldn’t they just make money via fraud instead so no one gets hurt physically?
In what sounds like a Sopranos subplot, a trio of young pals in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, started out to do just that.
Fraudster friends. Wesley Person, Justin Glover Jr., and Lawrence Murrell Jr. would persuade a fourth party to apply for an auto loan, divide up the money, and never buy the car.
The Pennsylvania State Employees Credit Union couldn’t recoup the funds by seizing the vehicle because there was no vehicle. The conspirators carried out more than a dozen of these scams, defrauding lenders out of a total of $115,000 to $120,000.
Unfortunately, the men’s shenanigans took a horrible turn, which Forensic Files recounted in “Dollars and Sense.”
Shifty move. In 2005, Wesley Person’s partners in crime discovered that he’d quietly completed a scam worth $15,000 to $20,000 and neglected to share the proceeds.
andonline
Person, age 26, barely had a chance to enjoy the new shoes he bought himself at the Sneaker Villa in Harrisburg: Murrell and Glover killed him on the day before Christmas.
They defeated the purpose of their business model. Instead of easy money, the two men received life sentences.
Horrible sight. For this week, I looked for epilogues on Murrell and Glover. They were in their early 20s at the time of the murder, so I was curious to find out whether they got any breaks.
But first here’s a quick recap of the episode along with information drawn from internet research:
On Christmas Eve of December 2005, motorists spotted flames alongside Route 83 near Baltimore, Maryland. They came from a body that had been set on fire.
That’s my BF. Although the corpse had been badly burned, the skull along with a patch of the victim’s braided hair gave a reconstructionist just enough to work with.
A woman named Keisha Walker recognized the police artist’s drawing as her boyfriend, Wesley Person. (Note: He appears to be no relation to either of the NBA players of the same name).
Person was born on August 31, 1979, and attended Brooklyn’s Boys and Girls High School, whose alumni included science fiction author Isaac Asimov and Shirley Chisolm, the first black woman elected to Congress.
Hardest-working scammer. Although Person wasn’t exactly chasing greatness, he didn’t make a whole lot of trouble either. He moved to Pennsylvania and started keeping company with Lawrence Murrell Jr., 21, and Justin Glover Jr., 24.
If anything, Murrell sounded like he should have been a good influence. He was married, worked full time as a janitor for the Harrisburg school district, and was taking college courses. In his spare time, he bought and renovated houses.
Murrell and Glover, the third member of the trio, “were partners in several rental properties in Harrisburg,” according to a Pennlive.com article, which also notes that Glover was a father.
That’ll be cash. But for whatever reason, honest entrepreneurship wasn’t enough, and Murrell, Glover, and Person started the auto loan scams.
The last day anyone saw Person alive was shortly before Christmas. He had gone shopping with a big wad of 50s and 100s.
His buddies Abdul McCauley and Stephen Aikens witnessed him having a heated discussion with Murrell and Glover in the parking lot afterward.
Police theorized that Murrell and Glover took Person to the basement of one of the properties Murrell owned and shot him three times in the head.
Detritus divulges. At the site where the duo left Person’s burning body, investigators found some plaster and other detritus that matched the debris in Murrell’s house at 441 South 13th Street in Harrisburg.
On February 19, 2008, Murrell and Glover were found guilty of first-degree murder, criminal conspiracy, and abuse of a corpse.
Glover got a life sentence for the homicide and 11 to 22 years for other charges. Murrell received life without the possibility of parole plus additional time.
They are both still fighting to get out.
Legal maneuvers. In 2014, a superior court upheld Glover’s conviction. He then filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus based on contentions including ineffective counsel for failing to object to the use of “unverified cell phone records,” failure to impeach Abdul McCauley, and the possibility that Keisha Walker “had motive to commit the crime.”
Glover contends that Aiken should have testified for the defense that he heard Keisha Walker — Person’s girlfriend — say that Person “got what he deserved” because of some bad blood between the two lovebirds.
License to work. Glover also contended that his own girlfriend Christina Hughes should have been allowed to testify that they were watching a movie together during the time of the murder.
In August 2017, U.S. District Judge Richard Conaboy denied Glover’s petition.
For now, Glover resides along with 2,183 inmates in the maximum-security Fayette State Correctional Institution in Labelle, Pennsylvania. It’s the only prison in the state where license plates are made.
At 6-feet-5-inches, Glover probably doesn’t have to worry about being bullied out of his commissary items.
Chance of freedom. Murrell, who is serving his sentence in the medium-security Dauphin County Prison, has had better post-conviction luck.
Although the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania denied his 2010 petition for allowance of appeal, he won the right to an evidentiary hearing in 2018.
Murrell’s court papers contend that he had ineffective counsel who failed to call character witnesses and that the plaster found on Wesley Person’s body could have come from a different property. Murrrell also alleges that Abdul McCauley’s testimony for the prosecution was tainted because Dauphin County had given him favorable treatment for an unrelated drug offense.
Rehab your life and house. No word on how the evidentiary hearing turned out or whether it has even been scheduled yet. As of this writing, Murrell remains behind razor wire.
Murrell and Glover are still young — 34 and 37 — and have plenty of time to explore legal avenues to freedom.
They also have skills that would enable them to start legitimate real estate careers, although the two should probably forget about their partnership and go their separate ways if they get out of prison on two feet.
Incidentally, the 5-bedroom 1-bath row house where Wesley Person met his end is up for sale for $69,100.
That’s all for this post. Until next time, cheers. — RR
Watch the episode on YouTube and Tubi
Thanks, RR – I recall this and the (seemingly) fine forensic job done. These two are trash: I hope they stay put instead of wangling freedom on what is likely to be a technicality. Wasted lives that, it seems, had some potential for decency, for pure greed. T’was ever thus a la FF…
That house is VERY cheap (from a Brit perspective, at least). I guess the area’s not… desirable. And I understand that realtors (estate agents here) are required to disclose matters such as a homicide in a property (though I could be wrong). That wouldn’t put me off per se, but as it’s likely indicative of the area I’d have to be desperate.
In NYC, it would be worth at least $1 million. Location, location, location.
Lawrence Murrell is home. He certainly appears to be victim of a frame job — read Murrell v. Giroux and also read his 984 page pro se habeas corpus petition. He freed himself with proof. The prosecutor told the stenographer to stop typing so the prosecutor could argue he had no evidence to prove the case and to find Murrell guilty by the “power of god.” Well God freed him and Murrell sued damn near everyone involved! Wisdom says “believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.” I hope he recovers.
FC, to clarify your remarks, Murrell plead guilty to third degree murder rather than be re-tried, thus was then released for time served. He has far from been exonerated (he did NOT ‘prove’ innocence to gain freedom, as you ambiguously suggest). He MAY be innocent and did not wish to risk wrongful re-conviction for a higher murder degree or he may be guilty of murder per his plea. On the face of it, it is the latter because that is what he pled.
Conviction for third-degree murder does not require intent to kill as in first-degree murder, but it still requires malice. In general, Pennsylvania courts have ruled that the standard of “malice” required for a conviction of third-degree murder is the same as that required for aggravated assault: not just “ordinary negligence” nor “mere recklessness,” but “a higher degree of culpability: that which considers and then disregards the threat necessarily posed to human life by the offending conduct.” A defence of diminished capacity may reduce first-degree murder to third-degree murder.
As to his stenographic issue, that has been dismissed thus far:
https://digitalcommons.law.villanova.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1012&context=thirdcircuit_2021
Glover’s conviction, and his incarceration, stands.
If Murrell was at the crime scene (2 places) shooting and the burning of a corpse, he’s guilty of murder too…for not reporting a crime twice.
Horrified at the senseless, brutal crime, thanks might be squeezed, from the recalcitrant, caked tooth paste tube we call life, to gang bangers and hoods for keeping real estate prices affordable.
Without them, I wouldn’t have gotten a sweet deal on home sweet home. Too bad it isn’t charity that made it possible, kudos to the insensate free market. Thanks for another fantastic column, RR. You made my day.
Thanks, Skeeter — a middle class housing program definitely would have been better than what happened to Person.
I’m always happy to receive your emails, RR, as I then get to rewatch the episode and then read your update. This episode was amazing in that they had so much forensics involved: facial reconstruction of a burned head, which allowed the victim to be identified after the sketch was released; trace of a specific animal hair in plaster used in houses built in the 30’s (who knew?); paint color analysis; cell phone tower pings that debunked the alleged alibis, fingerprint from all that was left of the poor mostly burned victim. Great episode, forensic-wise.
I’m amazed at the number of cases where I read about objecting to the use of “unverified cell phone records” (isn’t that an issue in the Adnan Sayed case, another Baltimore murder?). Why is it that there can be all this evidence that the con is a murderer, and some attorney tries to throw out the case based on some technicality of obtaining cell phone records?
So glad you liked the update, and thanks for mentioning Adrian Sayed — apparently there’s an HBO documentary in the works about him, so I’ll be sure to watch.
In the cheapest parts of the UK that house would be the eq of $350-400k; in London (more than NYC prices), $2m+. It’s good that such houses are being used and, hopefully, the areas improving and crime being driven out. It’s terrible seeing the ghost areas of the likes of Detroit – houses abandoned for years and rotting that once made people a nice home…
Stop always trying to compare yourselves to the US, compare yourselves to Europe. London is corny. Worry about your own country.
Phil, Stupid comment. What’s wrong with comparison? Reminder USA emerged from a British colony! Poster’s not dissing US and is right about Detroit (have you seen it?) so what’s your problem?
Thanks Rebecca. The elements of their crime (disposing of the body and attempts to cremate it) are eerily similar to the Covet Thy Neighbor episode where Maurice Wallace transported the body of Olamide Adeyooye 700 miles across state lines and cremated her remains in an abandoned farmhouse. Are these criminals not aware that in today’s age, law enforcement agencies across different states have an integrated and coordinated system of sharing information and subsequently solving crimes?
And as FF likes to remind us, fires create evidence.
hope they never get out
I should write a tv show and put it on television. You idiots will beleive anything on tv apparently. 2 black men were convicted by an all white jury in a predominantly black town. Half the evidence in this show was not in the actual trial fact, check that. Also the jurors deliberated over a snow storm and wanted to go home. And there was continous misconduct by the ADA.
Racist
Me: And your point is…? While not definitive, both appealed, to be rejected in 2014:
https://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2014/03/state_court_backs_life_sentenc.html
So your presumed point that flaws in the trial made the verdict unsound has been superseded by further consideration.
Not for the first time on this site is the suggestion made that FF effectively brought the prosecution, rather than merely reporting it. Flaws in FF’s presentation do not in any way, shape or form suggest flaws in the court’s judgement… Perhaps you think the jury were idiots too…
Sounds like these two dirtbags got what they deserved. They both should rot in prison.
Yep, they’re scumbags.
Damn, it hurts me to read this. 3 good friends of mine. We all grew up in Brooklyn Ny together. I miss my bro Wess. **RIP BROTHER**
INFAREL: Sorry for the loss of your friend, Wesley: an appalling crime Given what your other two friends did to him, do you need scumbag friends like these??? They’re where they belong.
Also sorry for the loss of your friends, INFAREL. Sadly, it sounds as though greed took over Murrell and Glover’s souls. The case makes me of think of another Forensic Files killer, Sharon Zachary.
To be sure, Zachary and these two deserve each-other, all being atrocious.
As the sister of the deceased that never had the opportunity to meet him, I must say that I am not amused by this “Couldn’t they just make money via fraud instead so no one gets hurt physically?” I can appreciate being able to have an update as well as a recap of what is happening with these two creatures.
So sorry that you never had a chance to meet your brother and that he died at such a younge age.
Ineffective counsel: the default appeal basis. These two should probably never be released for this vicious, premeditated murder.
They trot that one out early and often.
Life is about choices, make good choices your life will be happy and your family will have a sound future, make bad choices and your life will certainly lead you to prison.
Incorrect, I’m afraid.
An FBI report in ’18 found that roughly 40 percent of the nation’s slayings went unsolved in ’17. The bureau looked at 2017 crime and arrest data from 16,000 law enforcement agencies across the country and found that only 61.6 percent of reported murders were “cleared.”
The FBI considers a murder case cleared when a person is arrested, charged and turned over to courts, or when offenders are identified but cannot be arrested because they died or can’t be extradited.
That leaves 38.4 percent of the 15,657 murders reported nationwide unsolved — 6,012 in all, according to FBI data.
Now, some will be caught some years later – but the fact remains that a significant proportion of killers are never ‘led to prison’.
At least we can say that MOST are…
This comment is ignorant for so many reasons and reeks of privilege. People don’t choose to be born in a race, class, location and don’t choose their parents – all of which dictate the options of these so called “choices” that you speak of. This blanket statement doesn’t apply as simply as you make it seem in real life for some people. Some ppl only have limited choices due to a myriad of reasons, which many times leads to decisions being made that aren’t the best. Learn some things outside of your box, please.
Are you suggesting some don’t have a choice not to kill or harm, which is what in context the comment you disagree with is about? If we don’t have a choice about whatever circumstances we’re in, mankind might as well give over to anarchy.
Of course some people’s choices are limited and much less than others’ more fortunate – but we all have free will and the moral capacity not to choose to harm, which is Justis’s point. Were s/he’s wrong is in suggesting choices, good or bad, are punished or rewarded accordingly and proportionately. That plainly doesn’t follow (‘when bad things happen to good people’ etc.) but is a different matter.
The choices relevant to this discussion are moral, and we have a choice not to harm. Murrell and Glover made an evil choice out of greed and anger.
You make it sound like you are supporting their release. They murdered someone in cold blood. Let them spend the rest of their lives in prison.
Not at all — they are where they should be. But murderers so often get out of prison. (Even woodchipper killer Richard Crafts exited on two feet.) I think Glover and Murrell have a good chance of going straight if they do win release.
When you enter into crime and start aligning yourself with other criminals, you put yourself at risk. Together, these kind hurt innocent people for their own benefit, but when one of them rips-off on their own, it is known as “rat bites rat.” The old adage that “there is no honor among thieves” is quite accurate and this is exactly what happened. I don’t feel sorry for any of them!