NORRISTOWN, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — The Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office is seeking the death penalty for a Philadelphia man accused of shooting and killing his pregnant ex-girlfriend at a gas station in King of Prussia.
Rafiq Thompson, 39, is charged with first-degree murder and first-degree murder of an unborn child, accused of shooting his former girlfriend, 31-year-old Tamara Cornelius.
Cornelius was pregnant at the time, and Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele says Thompson knew it when he shot and killed while she pumped gas at the Exxon station on the corner of North Gulph Road and Route 202 by the mall in King of Prussia.
“The murder of a pregnant woman. And he had knowledge of that fact, that it was multiple killings. It was the killing of the victim as well as the unborn child, that he had a significant violent history. He has a number of felonies that were being perpetrated during this event,” Steele said.
If convicted of first-degree murder, his office has filed to seek the death penalty — the first time the Montgomery County D.A. has done so since 2014.
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“We do extensive review, to determine whether or not we are going to seek the death penalty. In the past number of years, none have risen to the level of aggravating factors outweighing mitigating factors in this one they did. So we are proceeding,” Steele said.
At the time of the shooting, Thompson was on probation after spending three years in prison on an aggravated assault conviction in Philadelphia, for hitting another former girlfriend with his van then charging at her with a knife.
Thompson’s trial in Montgomery County is scheduled for September 2023.