Atlanta strip club DJ Awesome hires best friend to murder wife: police

An Atlanta-area strip club DJ hired his best friend to murder his wife, who was found dead in her suburban home with a young child straddling the woman’s lifeless body, police said.

Even worse, Adrian Harley, who allegedly killed Tiffany Pugh, 30, on Nov. 23, then served as a pallbearer during her funeral, a friend told WGCL-TV.

The fake story of a robbery-gone-wrong came crumbling down two weeks later when widower Andre Pugh, who goes by the stage name DJ Awesome, was busted while playing Saturday at the Club Onyx Atlanta.

“If he did it, there’s no words for him right now. I hope he rots in hell,” a friend of Tiffany Pugh’s, who asked not to be identified, told the CBS affiliate. “If he did it.”

A police report obtained by the station shows Andre Pugh, 34, called cops Nov. 23 to report that his wife had been murdered — but that he hadn’t been inside. Instead, Pugh told a dispatcher that the security system alarm had gone off and that the garage door was open, a back window was broken and his wife had not answered him.

As cops arrived at the East Point, Ga., home, about seven miles southwest of Atlanta, Pugh, a Bronx, N.Y. native, was waiting outside.

“My kids are in there! She’s not picking up the phone!” he repeatedly yelled at officers as they arrived on scene, according to the report.

Once inside, officers found Tiffany Pugh dead in her bed, “a small child straddling the woman’s chest,” the report says.

“I observed that the woman’s left eye was swollen and oozing blood,” an officer wrote. “There was what appeared to be a gunshot hole in the headboard behind the females (sic) head.”

One of Tiffany’s friends said the couple had been having marital issues and that Tiffany planned to move out of their shared home.

“Everybody knew they had problems, it wasn’t no big secret,” the friend told the station

Instead, cops believe the break-up spurred the hit, which left the couple’s children, ages 2 and 7, without a mother.

At her Nov. 29 funeral, Harley, who allegedly pulled the trigger, was one of the men helping carry the casket, the friend said, adding insult to injury.

Tiffany Pugh had recently turned 30 years old, lost her mother and was dealing with her own domestic problems.

But by the time of his arrest, those messages had turned to anger.

“I’m so hurt by this,” wrote one woman who posted a news article announcing Pugh’s arrest. “Two weeks ago, I cried real tears for u Dre ... for ur ‘pain’ and for ur beautiful kids. Real fckng tears ....”

Andre Pugh faces charges of conspiracy to commit burglary, conspiracy to commit murder and murder, while Harley faces charges of burglary, conspiracy to commit murder, felony murder, murder and possession of firearm during commission of a felony.

Both men are held without bail and Pugh is due in court Tuesday, while Harley is scheduled to appear Dec. 22.