Police: Corey White, Target of Facebook hit fatally shot

PHILADELPHIA — Authorities are investigating two possible theories in connection with the death of a man gunned down hours after a judge upheld felony charges against his ex-girlfriend, who was accused of offering $1,000 on Facebook for someone to kill him.

Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said Tuesday that police are investigating leads about whether Monday night's fatal shooting of Corey White, 22, was possibly connected to the alleged Facebook threat or to a shooting last month outside a nightclub in Upper Darby, a Philadelphia suburb.

Police believe another man was the shooter in the nightclub shooting, but they had been trying to track down White for questioning because they believed he may have been the getaway driver, Chitwood said in an interview with The Associated Press. It's too early to tell if White's killing was connected to either that case or the Facebook posting, Chitwood said.

Earlier Monday, a judge had approved charges including murder solicitation against White's ex-girlfriend and murder conspiracy charges against the 18-year-old man who allegedly responded to her post in June.

Allegation: London Eley, 20, is accused of offering $1,000 to anyone who would be willing to kill her ex-boyfriend Corey White, Philadelphia police said

For a 'stack': Police said 18-year-old Tim Bynum responded to her posting about needing a hitman and arranged to meet Eley

That night, homicide investigators said, White got into an argument with the occupants of a brown car and a man got out of the vehicle and shot him. The vehicle had been carjacked a short time before the shooting and was later set on fire, Chitwood said.

Philadelphia police also said authorities were still trying to determine the motive behind White's shooting.

"There are a couple of other theories out there," Philadelphia homicide Capt. James Clark said.

A municipal judge approved charges Monday including murder solicitation against White's ex-girlfriend, 20-year-old London Eley of Philadelphia, and murder conspiracy and weapons charges against 18-year-old Timothy Bynum of suburban Darby.

"I will pay somebody a stack to kill my baby father," Eley wrote in a post this spring, according to a police affidavit.

"Say no more ... what he look like ... where he be at ... need that stack 1st," Bynum wrote back, police said.

A "stack" is $1,000, investigators said.

Eley's attoey said at Monday's hearing that his client was merely venting about an argument she'd had with her ex-boyfriend and had no intention of following through.

"When you do it on a computer, you are putting it out there for the whole world to see and memorializing it," defense attoey Gerald Stein said. "Unfortunately, it sort of magnifies the anger."

Prosecutors countered by saying Eley wasn't joking about the hit in the original post.

Bynum's lawyer, Lopez Thompson, said Tuesday that Bynum's family is devastated about White's death. Thompson insisted his client had no intention of killing White when he responded to the Facebook message and had nothing to do with White's shooting.

The Philadelphia Inquirer first reported White's death.