The Philadephia hitman who admitted he played a role in the murder of six people and attempted to murder a seventh over the course of three years was sentenced to five consecutive life terms last week, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Last year, Ernest Pressley, 43, pleaded guilty, including conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, for the killings he carried out between 2016 and 2018.
Investigators began looking into Pressley’s crimes in late 2018 when the FBI and the Philadelphia Police linked him to the fatal shooting of Shawn Small who was killed while sitting in his car in Overbrook Park. Pressley was seen on surveillance footage near the scene of the crime and was also spotted at a bar with Small.
During the investigation, law enforcement discovered that Pressley also murdered two tow truck drivers as part of a murder-for-hire plot in January 2017 when Pressley was paid to kill one of the drivers to prevent him from testifying in an assault trial. But to make the murder look like a feud between two rival tow truck companies, Pressley killed the other driver as well.
Investigators were also able to link Pressley to another January 2017 murder in Philadelphia where he shot a man who was working on his car at a garage. Pressley also admitted to providing the location of another man whom a local drug trafficker wanted dead. This led to the wrong man being murdered in July 2018.
In 2018, Pressley also attempted to fatally shoot a woman. The victim, who survived the shooting, later discovered that her home had been trashed and that jewelry and money had been stolen. Investigators later learned that Pressley had sold the victim’s Rolex watch at a Philadelphia pawn shop.
In court filings ahead of last week’s sentencing, Assistant US Attorney Justin Ashenfelter described Pressley’s actions as “depraved and vile,” saying the hit-man, whom prosecutors described as a “cold-blooded killer,” is a “stain” on society.
