NORRISTOWN — A jury determined a Philadelphia man acted with a specific intent to kill when he fatally shot another man in the head during a drug deal that went awry inside a King of Prussia hotel room.
Jonathan Albert Tunnell, 40, of the 2300 block of Bambrey Terrace, showed no outward emotion on Tuesday as a Montgomery County jury convicted him of first-degree murder, which is an intentional killing, and possessing an instrument of crime and firearms not to be carried without a license in connection with the June 14, 2021, fatal shooting of Henry Joseph Palmen, 35, inside a room at the Fairfield Inn in the King of Prussia section of Upper Merion.
The jury deliberated about 90 minutes before reaching the verdict.
Judge William R. Carpenter immediately sentenced Tunnell to life imprisonment, the mandatory term for a conviction of first-degree murder.
Tunnell turned down the opportunity to address the judge before the sentence was imposed. Several relatives of Palmen were in the courtroom to hear the verdict.
As he was escorted from the courtroom by sheriff’s deputies to begin serving the life sentence Tunnell uttered “it was expected” when asked by a reporter for a comment about the verdict.
During the two-day trial, prosecutors Allison Ruth and Gabrielle Hughes sought the first-degree murder conviction against Tunnell, arguing the killing was “willful, deliberate and premeditated.”
“Point blank range. He shot Henry Palmen in the head. He put a bullet in his brain. Make no mistake, this was an execution. This is first-degree murder,” Ruth argued during her closing statement to jurors on Tuesday.
“He was right up on Mr. Palmen when he made the conscious decision to shoot him in the head,” Ruth added.
Defense lawyer Abraham Hobson III argued for a conviction of third-degree murder, a killing committed with malice, hardness of heart or recklessness of consequences, which is punishable by a maximum of 20 to 40 years in prison.
“This case is not about who killed Henry Palmen, this case is about what is the crime that was committed,” Hobson argued during his closing statement to the jury.
Tunnell did not testify during the trial and Hobson did not dispute evidence that Tunnell killed Palmen during a drug transaction.
But Hobson suggested Tunnell believed Palmen shorted him during a previous drug deal and that during a confrontation the men engaged in a tussle and Tunnell fired the gun as he reacted to a sudden move by Palmen.
“Jonathan Tunnell didn’t go there with the intent to kill Henry Palmen. Given the evidence that you heard, the verdict should be third-degree murder,” Hobson argued to the jury.
The investigation began about 3:30 p.m. June 14 when Upper Merion police responded to the Fairfield Inn in the 200 block of Mall Boulevard for a report of an overdose victim in one of the hotel rooms, according to a criminal complaint filed by county Detective Anthony Caso and Upper Merion Detective John Wright.
Hotel staff reportedly found the victim inside a room when they went to investigate a smoke alarm sounding inside the room and immediately notified police.
Arriving officers found Palmen dead and observed he sustained a bleeding wound to the left side of his head, “which upon close inspection, appeared to be a small diameter bullet wound,” Caso and Wright alleged. Detectives also found a cellphone next to Palmen’s body and in reviewing the content observed numerous photographs and text messages related to the sale of illegal drugs, specifically marijuana, ecstasy and other drugs, according to court papers.
When detectives processed the crime scene they discovered numerous “packaged marijuana edibles and a large amount of individual pills white and orange in color” inside the hotel room, according to the arrest affidavit.
A subsequent autopsy determined Palmen died of a gunshot wound to the head and the manner of death was ruled homicide. A forensic pathologist also noted stippling between the left ear and eye indicating that Palmen was shot from close range, according to court documents.
A relative of Palmen told detectives she spoke by phone with Palmen about 12:30 a.m. June 14 and during the conversation Palmen indicated he was driving to Pennsylvania from North Carolina to meet with Tunnell, a family friend, to sell him marijuana, according to the criminal complaint.
Investigators obtained video surveillance footage from the area of the Fairfield Inn and observed a male, later identified as Tunnell, walking along Mall Boulevard near the hotel at 10:26 a.m. on June 14 and then again at 10:46 a.m., walking quickly in the opposite direction, according to court documents.
While viewing the video surveillance footage, investigators were able to identify the man as Tunnell by the distinctive tattoos that could be seen on his hands. Hotel personnel told detectives they had observed Tunnell enter the hotel and an elevator on that day, according to court documents.
A relative of Palmen told authorities she received a phone call from Tunnell at 2:30 p.m. on June 14 and she described Tunnell “as angry, telling her that Palmen had stood him up,” according to the criminal complaint.
