By Jason Nark
The Philadelphia Daily News
PHILADELPHIA — A former budding hip-hop artist-turned-gang leader pleaded guilty yesterday for his role in the brutal double murder of a young woman and her boyfriend in Camden last year.
Kuasheim “Presto-P” Powell, 25, pleaded guilty, his attorney said, in exchange for a 30-year sentence with no parole for his role in the torture and murder of Michael Hawkins, 23, and Muriah Huff, 18, in a Berkley Street rowhouse on Feb. 22, 2010.
Hawkins, a former friend of Powell’s and rival gang member, was beaten and shot, while Huff, a cosmetology student, was beaten and strangled.
Both victims were buried in a shallow grave behind the house. Powell, a member of the Lueders Park Piru Bloods, was one of 10 defendants charged in the murders. He fled to California after the murders and was arrested there weeks later.
Attorney Richard Sparaco said Powell was looking at a life sentence before the plea agreement was made.
Powell will also receive 20 years, to run concurrently with the other sentence, for the attempted murder of two men at a Pennsauken train station just a day before the Camden murders. He will be officially sentenced on Oct. 14.
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