Norfolk police probe theft of murder victim's credit cards

NORFOLK

Norfolk police are investigating whether a woman charged for her involvement in the killing of her roommate last year fraudulently used the victim’s credit cards.

According to a search warrant affidavit filed in Norfolk Circuit Court, Pamela Campbell obtained $2,500 cash from a bank with one of the cards more than month after Lettrelle Thornton, a Norfolk State University security guard, was killed inside her Rosemont-area townhouse.

Campbell faces a felony count of solicitation of murder. Her brother, Tony B. Smith was also charged. He is at the Virginia Beach city jail, awaiting trial for first-degree murder.

According to the affidavit, investigators discovered that someone called the two credit card companies, asking that a duplicate credit card be made and that Campbell be authorized to use one of the accounts.

Investigators also believe that Campbell gave her daughter the victim’s credit card number to purchase a computer.

In March 2008, Campbell reported finding Thornton unconscious at the townhouse in the 3900 block of Pollypine Drive. The 69-year-old woman appeared to have been the victim of an assault, police said