Gangster's Future Just Got Bleaker

The gang days of Terrell Milam, suspected of assaulting former Seahawk (and current Dallas Cowboy) safety Ken Hamlin, ended when Milam was shot nine times in the back seat of a car here three years ago (see "Cracking the Gangbangers' Code of Silence," SW, April 16). But if Milam's was a life without value, the cost of his death just went up.

Last week, King County prosecutors amended murder charges from second degree to first degree against one of Milam's accused killers, Omar Norman, 24, a member of the Low Profile (LPs) street gang. Prosecutors say Milam, 31, a Black Gangster Disciple, was killed riding in a car with two LPs, to whom he'd bragged about wounding another gangster days earlier. Milam was unaware the driver was the brother of the man Milam wounded. The driver—not yet charged, but currently in prison for another crime—allegedly fired eight shots into or at Milam; Norman allegedly fired the last shot into Milam's brain to "top [finish] him off," as Norman reportedly told two witnesses.

Milam's body was found dumped on a street near Seward Park around 6 a.m. on Oct. 16, 2005. Police initially suspected he had been killed in retaliation for brawling hours earlier with Hamlin outside a Pioneer Square nightclub, fracturing Hamlin's skull and ending the football player's season—but the Norman case shows another motive for his death, they say.

Police and prosecutors had originally charged Norman with Murder 2 in a plea offer. But with no agreement 14 months after his arrest, they amended the charge to Murder 1 last Tuesday. He also faces assault and weapons counts.