The pair accused of killing the owner of Tucker's Mai Thai restaurant both confessed and revealed the motive: one of them, a waitress, needed $140 to pay her car loan.
That’s according to DeKalb County homicide detective Lynn Shuler, who testified Wednesday during a preliminary hearing for Imani Burns, 20, and her boyfriend Jarvis Stanford, 23. Shuler said Burns asked Somphot “Joey” Aromsuk, 33, if she could pick up some shifts to pay her TitleMax bill.
“Yes,” the boss told her, “you can come work anytime.”
She asked if he could pay her in advance. He said no.
“Imani got upset,” Shuler testified.
Burns and Stanford decided — both said it was the other's idea — to rob Aromsuk, a well-liked immigrant from Thailand who'd become a fixture in Tucker.
On the night of Sept. 10, they smoked pot in the boyfriend’s car and waited in the parking lot off Hugh Howell Road, Shuler said.
When the owner closed up and walked outside, the boyfriend approached with a gun and demanded he hand over the day’s till, according to the detective. Aromsuk didn’t give it to him and was shot twice, falling to the pavement as the shooter grabbed the till and fled.
Stanford and Burns, who’d waited in the car, left and soon parked to count the money: $800.
Shuler said Stanford gave Burns $200, kept $200 for himself and gave the rest to the mother of his child.
Both suspects, who are charged with murder, gave this version of events after police identified them, according to the testimony. The crime was caught on a nearby security camera in the Tucker Station shopping center and was partially witnessed by a security guard.
Attorneys for the defendants, who remain jailed, made no argument against the charges.
Judge Alan Harvey said he found “very substantial” probable cause for the state to continue with its case in superior court.
He didn't stop there.
“Somebody trying to help somebody out…” the judge said. “To me, that’s unbelievable.”
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