D.A.: 2 were killed over drug debt

A dispute over a drug debt led to the close-range shooting deaths of two Warminster residents Tuesday night, Bucks County prosecutors said yesterday.

Lisa Marie Diaz, 27, and Mendez Thomas Jr., 22, died of head wounds from gunshots fired from inches away by a cocaine dealer who claimed Diaz owed him money, authorities said.

"It is clear that these individuals were executed due to a perceived drug debt," said David Zellis, first assistant district attorney.

The accused gunman, 25-year-old Alfonso Sanchez, was still being sought, despite "hundreds of leads" in Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs, Warminster Police Chief Michael Murphy said.

Sanchez's two alleged accomplices surrendered Wednesday and were being held without bail on homicide and other charges. They were identified as Steven Miranda, 20, and Alexander Martinez, 21, both of Warminster.

Sometime after 11 p.m. Tuesday, Miranda and Martinez had accompanied Sanchez to Thomas' apartment in the Bucks Landing complex on Street Road. Thomas and his girlfriend, Jessica Carmona, were at a neighbor's apartment, while Diaz remained to babysit the couple's two young children.

Carmona told police that Miranda had been to her apartment before. After he arrived Tuesday night, Miranda called Thomas' cell phone and asked where he was, a police affidavit says.

When Thomas returned to the apartment with Carmona, he and Sanchez immediately got into an argument, the affidavit says. As Thomas headed down a hallway of the apartment, Sanchez pulled a semiautomatic handgun from his waistband, followed Thomas, and shot him in the back of the head, the affidavit says.

Sanchez then turned the gun on Diaz, wounding her in the shoulder before firing a fatal shot into her head, the affidavit says.

The amount of the debt was unclear, anywhere from a few hundred dollars to $4,000, District Attorney Diane Gibbons said.

"You have a bunch of drug addicts and drug dealers dickering over whether cocaine was properly paid for," Gibbons said. "They certainly believed that [Diaz] owed them money, that she ripped them off, and that she was going to pay the price for it."

The gunfire also wounded Carmona, 22, who is Diaz's sister.

A bullet grazed her leg as Carmona fell to the floor to shield her 22-month-old son, Nico Thomas, from the shots. Her 4-year-old daughter, Jaylene Thomas, also was in the apartment but was uninjured.