New details emerged this week in the case of a transgender prostitute accused of murdering a man at a local hotel this past fall.
A preliminary hearing was held before Judge Joseph Waters Feb. 8 in the case of Herman “Peaches” Burton, accused of the Oct. 30 killing of Patrick Michael Brady. Waters ordered Burton to stand trial for the murder, but the proceeding has not yet been scheduled.
Burton, who has a long rap sheet encompassing 36 arrests in the past few years, now faces charges of murder, theft, arson, abuse of corpse and related charges.
Rescue personnel found Brady’s body Oct. 31 in the Omni Hotel, Fourth and Chestnut streets, after a report of a small fire in an eighth-floor room.
During this week’s hearing, prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed that the medical examiner would not testify during the trial, nor would Burton’s statement to the police be read because of the graphic and gruesome nature of the account.
The ME determined the cause of death to be strangulation and blunt-impact trauma. Assistant district attorney Edward Cameron referenced the examiner’s report at the hearing, citing Brady suffered fractured ribs and larynx, bruising on nearly all of his organs and a laceration on his penis.
Surveillance photos were shown during the hearing depicting Brady and Burton entering the hotel lobby together on the night of Oct. 30.
While the events that led up to the attack are not clear, Burton’s attorney, Gregory Pagano, told the judge his client and Brady had a seven-month-long sexual relationship prior to the killing. Pagano also said Burton was on the drug PCP the night Brady died and that his client doesn’t recall much of the night.
Cameron said investigators believe that after the killing, Burton brought two other men into the room to have sex before setting the room on fire in an alleged attempt to cover the crime.
Brady was an information-technology worker at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and a resident of Thorndale, where he lived with his wife and 9-year-old daughter.
Police arrested Burton Nov. 2 and said the defendant was carrying Brady’s cell phone and credit card.
Police later that month arrested Richard Collins, charging him with abuse of corpse and theft charges, alleging that Burton called Collins after the murder and asked for help in disposing the body.
Collins pleaded guilty to the charges in November and is awaiting sentencing.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].