Cris Barrish

The News Journal

Joshua Bey pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and a solicitation charge.

Christopher J. Rivers%2C the alleged mastermind%2C and Dominque L. Benson%2C one of the alleged gunmen%2C will continue being held without bail and could face the death penalty

When detectives knocked on Christopher J. Rivers' front door about 7 a.m. on Sept. 22, 2013, and asked him about his business partner Joseph M. Connell, the first thing he asked was, "What did he do now?''

Connell had done nothing except return from a festive night out with his wife Olga and friends, only to be gunned down with his new bride in a hail of bullets outside their Paladin Club condominium on Wilmington's outskirts.

The cops from New Castle County didn't tell Rivers about the double murder just yet. Instead, they listened to him trash his business partner at C&S Automotive Repair on Concord Pike in Talleyville.

Rivers made sure to tell detectives James Leonard and Justin Breslin that Connell had recently been released from prison, and that Rivers first hired him and then let him become a partner. But after spending more than five years behind bars for a weapons charge, Rivers said Connell was still engaged in crime, selling illegal anabolic steroids from their thriving business.

Connell also was showing up late, leaving early and spending lavish amounts of money to support he and his wife's extravagant lifestyle, which included Mercedes sedans, fine dining in Philadelphia and a recent Caribbean honeymoon.

Although Rivers took pains to paint an unflattering portrait of the Connells and said several days later in an interview he had no idea they were murdered until detectives told him at the police station, police soon suspected Rivers was well aware of the killings because he had masterminded the crime that had occurred six hours earlier. The price he promised to pay to kill the Connells was $60,000, Leonard testified in court Monday.

Rivers later pointed out that he had an alibi for the time of the crime. Video surveillance cameras in his house showed him arriving about midnight at the house in Graylyn Crest -- more than an hour before the killings -- with a bag of food from McDonald's for his girlfriend and their infant son. The video, Leonard now says, shows Rivers looking directly at one camera and flashing a big smile.

Rivers' odd behavior at the initial stages of the investigation into the brutal killings was among the dozens of previously undisclosed details about the high-profile murder-for-hire case that Leonard disclosed during a blockbuster five-hour "proof positive hearing" in Superior Court. The hearing ended with Judge Charles E. Butler ruling that there was a fair likelihood Rivers and alleged triggerman Dominique L. Benson would be convicted of capital murder and would be held without bail pending trial.

Det. Leonard, the hearing's lone witness, said police suspect Rivers' motive was a nearly $1 million life insurance policy Rivers stood to collect to pay off the mortgage for C&S if Connell died.

Leonard also revealed that Joshua C. Bey has pleaded guilty to being the middleman in the plot. Rumors have abounded about the secret deal, which is not listed in the official court record, for several weeks.Bey, 30, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and a solicitation charge.

After the hearing, prosecutors Colleen Norris and Karin Volker would not say when Bey, 30, pleaded guilty or how he could do so without the deal being reflected in court files.Other top officials in Attorney General Beau Biden's office had no comment. Norris said Bey, who is being held in prison pending sentencing, faces up to life behind bars but will avoid the prospect of the death penalty.

A second alleged assassin, who has not been identified, remains at large. Defense attorney Natalie Woloshin, who attended Monday's hearing, said she has been retained to represent him.

Among other revelations by Leonard:

Rivers only paid about $14,000 of the $60,000 he promised to have the Connells killed and continued to stiff Bey and the triggermen even after one told Bey he might "kidnap" Rivers' girlfriend and their infant son. Bey said Rivers told him he couldn't pay the cash because authorities confiscated the money during a search of his house, but Leonard said detectives took no cash from the Brandywine Hundred home.

Bey said a "family member" of Benson had earlier agreed to do the killings alone and even took a gun to the Paladin complex one night intending to kill the couple, only to get cold feet. The unidentified relative, who was not charged in the conspiracy, agreed to go again the next night, but decided he couldn't go through with the killings and never went to the complex. That man told detectives the same story about agreeing and reneging on the murder plot, Leonard said.

Live 9mm bullets and spent shells were lodged in the dirt underneath Joseph Connell's body, leading Leonard to surmise that a gunman stood over him and fired extra shots into the back of his head after he was already fatally wounded.

One of the murder weapons was believed to have a been equipped with a silencer, Leonard testified, adding that authorities believe Olga Connell was killed with .22-caliber bullets.

A couple months before the murders, Bey broke into the Connell's condominium on Wilmington's outskirts and stole gold and other jewelry. Rivers had told Bey that authorities would suspect Connell's sister because she was in a financial dispute with her brother.

During Monday's hearing, Benson, a baby-faced former Brandywine Country Club dishwasher with a tattoo on his neck, and the 32-year-old Rivers, who now has a full brown beard, sat silently in the courtroom while Leonard testified.

Also in court were Rivers' parents and three supporters of Bey, including a woman who said she was a cousin. No one present for the defendants would comment.

On the other side were Connell's mother, sister, brother and sister-in-law. After the hearing, Kelly Connell issued this statement: "My family and I are very happy with today's outcome and the state's dedication to finding justice for our family."

All Delaware defendants, except those charged with capital murder, are eligible for bail. Biden's office has said the case is eligible for the death penalty because there were two murder victims. Norris also said the case could qualify as a capital case because it was a murder-for-hire and was done for financial gain, but said her office has not yet decided whether to seek it.

Admitted middleman details plot

With Bey now the star witness against the others in the alleged plot, the defense appears poised to attack the credibility and honesty of a gun felon and former FBI informant who police said lied to detectives several times before revealing the alleged plot after being charged Sept. 3.

Under cross-examination, defense attorneys quizzed Leonard about Bey's accounts, noting that there were no eyewitnesses to the murder, no weapons found and no DNA or other forensic evidence tying the suspects to the killings.

"We look forward to being able to cross-examine him under oath," said Brian Chapman, one of Rivers' two court-appointed, taxpayer-funded attorneys.

During the hearing, Leonard outlined the circumstantial case, detailing a series of phone calls in the hours before and after the murders from Rivers to Bey to phones used by Benson and the unidentified suspect, whom the detective called "Unindicted Co-Conspirator 2."

While Benson's attorney, Patrick J. Collins, suggested the calls might have been to set up a drug deal by men involved in the drug trade – including Rivers, an abuser of cocaine, methamphetamine and painkillers – Leonard testified Bey now says the calls were about only one topic – the killings.

Leonard also described a chilling call Bey said he received from Benson several hours after the killings.

"Go get our money," Bey said the alleged killer told him, and "made it clear that it is imperative for [Rivers'] safety that they get their money."

The unnamed suspect later told Bey that Rivers "had better come up with the money. He has a baby mama and a kid and I'll go snatch them up." Leonard said he interpreted that as a threat to kidnap Rivers' girlfriend, Lauren Gorman, and their son.

Rivers, however, who had a history of not paying legitimate personal and business debts, instead blew off the men he reportedly had hired to kill the Connells.

Rivers doesn't pay $60,000 fee

Rivers had already given Bey $5,000 in the spring of 2013 when he hired Bey to arrange the killings for $60,000. Bey used the down payment for legal bills, Leonard testified.

In the fall of 2012, though, while facing counterfeiting charges, Bey told the FBI and Wilmington police Benson and the other man were known to charge $10,000 to kill someone in Wilmington, Leonard testified.

Benson, a felon with a history of drug and gun convictions, has not been charged in any other killing. (It also was revealed Monday that Benson's girlfriend at the time of the killing, worked for Superior Court in jury services. She no longer works for the state, Leonard testified.)

Bey decided to charge Rivers $60,000 for the murders because he fancied himself a businessman and wanted a big payday for setting up the double murder, Leonard testified.

Bey also arranged for Rivers and Benson to meet outside C&S Automotive in Bey's car, Leonard testified, and during that meeting learned about the higher fee.

Bey and Benson later agreed to each take $20,000 and Benson agreed to find another hit man, settling on Benson's younger relative, who later backed out of the plot.

So Benson and the other man carried it out as originally planned, Leonard testified, but days later, Rivers still had not paid beyond the initial $5,000 he gave Bey in the spring.

With the killers becoming increasingly impatient, Bey told Leonard he convinced Rivers to pay an additional $5,000. He took the money that October to meet the unnamed killer but thought he was going to get killed himself, Leonard said.

The alleged gunman was on the front step of a home in Wilmington, reading The News Journal with a disgusted look on his face.

When Bey arrived, the man threw down the paper, and said he could not believe he had done a hit for this "broke ass." The man, Leonard testified, was reading an interview with Rivers that detailed some of his financial problems but quoted Rivers saying he would never have harmed Joseph Connell, whom he described as his "best friend."

During the tense meeting, the killer told Bey to "keep the $5,000" but Bey persuaded him to take the money, Leonard testified.

On two later occasions, Rivers paid an additional total of $4,000, Leonard said, leaving him $46,000 short of what he agreed to pay to have his partner and his wife murdered.

Contact senior investigative reporter CrisBarrish at (302) 324-2785, cbarrish@delawareonline.com, on Facebook or Twitter @crisbarrish.