City pastor charged with having man killed for life insurance

[babylonsister]

City pastor charged with having man killed for life insurance
Accused was responsible for helping disabled victim through nonprofit

By Justin Fenton | [e-mail]
April 25, 2009


A Baltimore pastor who worked with developmentally disabled people was charged Friday with befriending a blind and disabled man in his care, then paying a hit man $50,000 in church funds for an execution so he could collect life insurance money.

Police say Kevin Jerome Pushia, 32, who worked for four months as an operations manager for the Arc of Baltimore before abruptly quitting in January, confessed to plotting to kill Lemuel Wallace.

Pushia told police he persuaded Wallace and "numerous" other mentally challenged individuals to list him as a beneficiary on insurance policies.

A terse notation in Pushia's planning calendar for Feb. 5, the day after Wallace was found dead in a Leakin Park bathroom stall from multiple gunshot wounds to the head and back, reads: "L.W. project completed," police said.

Pushia was in custody while police look for other possible victims and examine whether Pushia had been plotting similar killings, said Maj. Terrence McLarney, commander of the city homicide unit. "We have a lot of work left to do," McLarney said, adding that the case remains open.

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