A "cold-blooded" professional hitman, who terrorized Philadelphia for years, will serve five consecutive life sentences in federal prison for six murders between 2016 and 2018.
Ernest Pressley, 43, was paid to kill four people in Philadelphia between 2017 and 2018, involved in two murders in 2016 and 2017, and an attempted murder of a woman in 2018, according to federal prosecutors.
"Taking a cold-blooded killer like Ernest Pressley off the street for five consecutive life sentences is a prime example of why the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Department of Justice make tackling violent crime a priority," U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Romero said in a statement after Tuesday's sentencing.
"Our joint partnerships with the FBI and Philadelphia Police Department make it possible to bring these cases into federal court and secure the severe punishment such a career murderer deserves."
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Philadelphia police and the FBI investigated Pressley after a Sept. 1, 2018, murder in an apartment complex after he had been with the victim and several other men in a nearby bar. He was arrested on Sept. 7, 2018.
During the investigation, law enforcement found out that Pressley had been paid to kill two tow truck drivers on Jan. 12 and 13, 2017, to prevent them from testifying as witnesses in a Philadelphia assault trial.
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To cover his tracks, prosecutors said that Pressley had randomly killed two other truck drivers from a different company to create an illusion of an ongoing feud.
In 2016, he fatally shot someone while they sat on their porch, according to prosecutors.
He also admitted to providing the location of a man who was wanted dead by a drug trafficker, which resulted in the death of a random person because of a mistaken identity in 2018.
In July 2018, he admitted in court to burglarizing a woman's home and shooting her when she came home, according to prosecutors. The woman was shot in the arm, but she survived.
"Ernest Pressley is a hardened and chronic offender, a true menace to society," Jacqueline Maguire, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Philadelphia Division, said in a statement.
"For all the lives he took and families he affected, this contract killer has duly earned each of his life sentences. The FBI and Philadelphia Police Department will continue to focus our partnership and resources on locking up the worst of the worst, like Pressley, who cause so much of the city’s bloodshed."
