‘Street Kid’ Accused of Helping Wife Kill Estranged Husband

An 18-year-old “street kid” was arrested on suspicion that he helped a Sun Valley woman stab her estranged husband to death while he slept, then attempted to make the killing appear to be the work of an intruder, authorities said Thursday.

Anthony Thomas Moore, 18, was scheduled to be arraigned today in San Fernando Municipal Court on a charge of murder for financial gain for allegedly helping Mary L. Kellel-Sophiea kill her husband, Gregory Kellel-Sophiea, in his Sun Valley home.

She called police at 3 a.m. on Jan. 31 and reported that her husband had been stabbed to death in his bed. She told police she had been asleep in another bedroom with the couple’s 6-year-old daughter and had not heard the intruder.

Police found pry marks on a door to the house, but said inconsistencies in the woman’s statements led to her arrest.

Police said Kellel-Sophiea stabbed her husband while he was sleeping, then tried to cover her tracks by making the slaying appear to have been committed during a break-in.

Moore’s fingerprints were also found in the house, and he was arrested Tuesday. Police said Moore, whom they described as a “street kid,” knew Kellel-Sophiea and helped her murder her husband.

Police refused to elaborate on their relationship.

But Kellel-Sophiea’s attorney, Leslie H. Abramson, denied that her client knew Moore, and said that he was solely responsible for the slaying.

“She has never seen him before in her life. He is a complete stranger,” Abramson said.

“This was clearly a burglary, and I guarantee you that this woman had nothing to do with this.”

Kellel-Sophiea pleaded not guilty earlier this month to a first-degree murder charge in San Fernando Municipal Court, and was free on $150,000 bail awaiting a preliminary hearing. But Deputy Dist. Atty. Craig R. Richman said the prosecution will ask that she be re-arraigned on a charge of murder with the special allegation that she killed for financial gain and will ask the judge to revoke her bail.

Mary and Gregory Kellel-Sophiea had separated shortly before the killing, and she and her daughter were living in the Long Beach area. The night of the killing, she went to the couple’s home to sign papers allowing her husband to sell the house, police said, and decided to stay overnight in a separate bedroom.