Bruce Vielmetti, and Ashley Luthern

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The 47-year-old man slain at a Milwaukee gas station Wednesday may have been cooperating with federal agents in a massive drug conspiracy and murder case in which he was a bit player.

Timothy S. Cunningham was one of 27 people named in the 2014 indictment in Milwaukee federal court and had been free on his own recognizance since April 2015. Though he was not part of the 2008 homicide charged as part of the case, Cunningham was looking at a mandatory life sentence under a federal three-strikes rule, increasing his incentive to help agents make other cases and win consideration in his own case.

"We're fearful this may have been retaliation based on the perception he was cooperating," said his attorney in the federal case, Anthony Cotton. "His family suspects he was lured to the location."

Unless a different motive is discovered, it would appear Cunningham is just the latest among a steadily growing list of Milwaukee residents killed to prevent or punish possible cooperation with law enforcement.

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Cunningham was shot about 7:15 p.m. Wednesday at Marathon Gas, 4209 W. Silver Spring Drive, where a red minivan with several bullet holes in the window was parked next to the gas pumps. Police had not made any arrests as of Friday and would not comment on his possible roles in other cases. They said the investigation into his homicide continues.

Cunningham's widow, Christina, said Friday that he would never go to that station because he considered it unsafe. "Everybody wants to play a game," she said. "I think whoever did this was close" to Cunningham.

The 2014 federal indictment made news because prosecutors announced they might seek the death penalty for the alleged leader, Kevin R. Arms.

Arms, 43, and two other men, John Bailey and Phillip Moffett, were charged in one part of the indictment with the homicide of Paula P. Jackson in 2008. Jackson, 43, was fatally shot in a car as she pulled into a tavern parking lot near the 4200 block of W. Burleigh St., apparently the victim of mistaken identity by the killers. Later in 2014, prosecutors gave notice they would not seek the death penalty.

All three have pleaded guilty. Bailey and Moffett were sentenced in December, Bailey to eight years and three months in prison, Moffett to 25 years in prison.

Arms had been scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday, but his attorney on Tuesday asked that it be postponed. It is now set for May 5. According to Arms' plea agreement, prosecutors will recommend no more than 30 years, reflecting credit for Arms' own cooperation to date.

Other counts in the indictment included conspiracy to distribute heroin, cocaine and marijuana, money laundering and gun offenses, obstruction of justice and failure to report a felony. Authorities were also seeking the forfeiture of homes, a boat, cars, motorcycles and expensive watches they believed were purchased with the proceeds of the illegal drug sales.

At the time the indictment was announced, authorities also said the Arms organization had a history of using intimidation.

Several other defendants in the case, including Arms' son Kevin C. Arms, 23, have been out of custody for months. There are dozens of sealed court documents in the sprawling case.

Christina Cunningham said her husband had known Arms since they were children, and that when her husband got out of prison in 2012, Arms helped him out financially. She said many people were intimidated by Cunningham, because of his size and having been to prison, but that he had "nothing to do with nothing" as far as federal drug ring charges. He was in prison during most of the time that the indictment charges the Arms' criminal enterprise was in operation.

She said since he was given pretrial release in 2015, Cunningham was trying to get into the towing business and would buy and resell used cars to make money. She said the red minivan he was in when he was killed was one he had recently purchased and planned to sell. She said Cunningham had two adult children and that they have a 3-year-old son together.

"He was doing so much better," she said. "He's been really trying, more than he ever tried," to get his life on a better track. Funeral arrangements had not been finalized Friday.