By Jane Prendergast
Enquirer staff writer

AVONDALE - An animal-protection group has custody of what could be evidence in Cincinnati's latest killing - a ball python confiscated at the homicide scene.

Officers found the snake crawling around the apartment building where Steven Thornton was shot Tuesday night. Witnesses told police that Thornton, 25, and a woman had been arguing and that she'd followed him into the Forest Avenue apartment, shot him once and fled.

Police were looking for Andre Anita Rowe, 34, Wednesday. Witnesses said Rowe had a gun earlier in the day, court records said. Police signed a warrant for her arrest on a murder charge.

The snake, a gray and black, young ball python about 10 inches long, will stay at the Hamilton County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals until it's no longer needed for evidence, spokesman Andy Mahlman said.

"The note I got about it says a guy got killed over this snake," he said. "That's not something you hear every day."

He said the snake's about the size of "one of those jumbo pencils you used to get when you were a kid."

It doesn't look as though it needs to eat right now, he said Wednesday, but when it does, it will be fed "pinkies," or newborn mice.

He estimated the value of the python at $50 to $100.

E-mail jprendergast@enquirer.com