| rfgdxm/Robert F. Golaszewski 2005-03-19, 5:17 pm |
| The second earlier news report mentions the DXM angle. At this rate DXM
is going to have as bad a reputation as LSD and PCP for causing people to be
violent and murderous.
http://www.heralddemocrat.com/artic.../iq_1769133.txt
Thomas convicted of capital murder
By Jerrie Whiteley
Herald Democrat
Jurors took less than 40 minutes Monday morning to convict Andre Thomas of
capital murder in the death of 13-month-old Leyha Marie Hughes.
The jury had heard closing arguments in the case on Friday and received just
a few more instructions Monday before they began their deliberations.
Thomas showed no emotion as the jury's verdict was read, but his aunt broke
down and cried loudly. On the other side of the courtroom, the families of
Thomas' victims took the verdict quietly.
Laura Boren Thomas' boyfriend and father of Leyha Hughes, Bryant Hughes, was
in the courtroom when the man who killed his child was convicted. So were
Laura's parents Paul and Sherry Boren.
With the conviction, the jury rejected the defense theory that Thomas was
insane a the time that he kicked in the door to Mrs. Thomas' apartment and
stabbed her, their son Andre Boren, and her daughter, Leyha, to death and
mutilated their bodies.
Now, the jury must decide what Thomas should pay for the crime. Grayson
County District Attorney Joe Brown and his first assistant, Kerye Ashmore,
are asking the ultimate price for what many people believe was the ultimate
in brutality - death.
Defense attorneys R.J. Hagood and Bobbie Peterson are asking the jury to
consider the whole of Thomas' life experiences and give him a life sentence.
To reach their decision, the jury will have to consider two questions. The
first is whether they think Thomas will be likely to commit violent crimes
in the future. This is commonly called the future dangerousness issue. The
second question is whether the jury thinks there are enough mitigating
circumstances to spare Thomas' life.
In order to make Thomas pay for his crimes with his life, all 12 jurors will
have to vote that he does pose a future threat and that there are no
mitigating circumstances. If 10 or more vote that he is not a future danger
and that there are mitigating circumstances, then Thomas will receive a life
sentence.
The prosecution has the burden to prove that Thomas is a continuing danger
and they started trying to do that Monday afternoon.
Ashmore said Thomas is a man who refuses to take responsibility for the
wrongs he has done in life and has a history of feigning mental illness to
keep from suffering the consequences of his actions. He said Thomas' history
shows the trifecta of signs for future dangerousness - past violence, use of
alcohol or drugs and mental illness. The prosecutor then urged the jury not
to settle on a life sentence for Thomas and to sentence him to die.
Hagood argued that the jury has not yet completed its journey with this case
and urged them to pay attention to the rest of the case. He described Thomas
as a young man who had a future at one time. Hagood recounted that Thomas
was accepted into the gifted and talented program at Sherman schools and
showed talent for drawing.
"He is a kind person," Hagood said of his client. He also said Thomas has
shown unconditional love for his mother even though she has refused to
answer subpoenas requesting her testimony at the trial. The rest of Thomas'
family, Hagood said, are standing behind him in this case.
"He has made poor choices," Hagood said, but he added that people have been
aware since Thomas was about 10 years old that Thomas suffered from mental
illness. And the defense attorney reminded the jury that Thomas does not
have a felony conviction as an adult.
"I will ask you to say that Andre's life is worth saving," Hagood said
before sitting down.
The state started presenting evidence a little after 2 p.m. The first person
called was Thomas' former probation officer Mike Polk. Polk supervised
Thomas when he was on juvenile probation. He said Thomas did eventually
complete the probation, but he didn't always meet all of the requirements.
Polk said Thomas first got into trouble for vandalizing property at Austin
College with some other young people in 1994. He was sentenced to probation
and completed that probation.
He was next involved with the legal system in 1997 when he was caught
stealing cars. Thomas was out on probation for stealing one car when he was
caught with another. He was out waiting trial on those two counts when he
was caught stealing a third car. He pleaded true to the allegations and was
placed on probation. Polk said Thomas was repeatedly cited for not attending
school, not paying fines, restitution and not doing community service work.
Under questioning by Ashmore, Polk recounted instances in which Thomas said
he had attempted suicide in an attempt to get out of going to boot camp or
the Texas Youth Commission. This, Ashmore contended, is part of a pattern
with Thomas.
Polk said Thomas was about to get sent to boot camp when he apparently
scratched himself and told staff that he was contemplating suicide. Peterson
asked what the diagnosis was when mental health practitioners examined
Thomas' claim, and Polk said they found that Thomas needed future evaluation
and treatment at Mental Health and Mental Retardation for mild depression,
an unnamed psychotic disorder and feelings of unreality and anxiety.
She also pointed out that Thomas was medically released from boot camp due
to a hernia. And she read a letter that Thomas wrote to Laura Boren before
their son was born in which Thomas said he was going to accept
responsibility for his actions and go to boot camp. He said he was going to
turn his life around and stop living by his life-long philosophy to "rage
against the machine."
Ashmore used Thomas' own words to fight against that notion. He read another
letter in which a cocky teen confessed to his girlfriend that he was trying
to pull one over on Polk. Thomas told Laura Boren he wasn't going to change
for anyone and if that is what she wanted, then she shouldn't have started
dating him.
Former Sherman Police officers Terry Dunn, now a Grayson County District
Attorney investigator, and Frank Deater, now a Pottsboro police officer,
testified about their encounters with a young Thomas. Dunn said he
investigated the car that Thomas stole from Ramey Chevrolet, and Deater
caught Thomas out past curfew one night. Deater said Thomas and another
juvenile had cans of spray paint and were cited for curfew violations.
Sherman Police Lt. Carl Hudman said he also caught Thomas in one of the cars
he stole in 1997. Hudman said he noticed Thomas in the car because he seemed
to be having trouble driving it down Texoma Parkway. Hudman said Thomas took
off when he saw the officer, and they raced around the area behind SherDen
Mall until Thomas lost control and put the car into a ditch. Hudman said
when he approached the car, Thomas got out and jogged toward the police
cruiser. He then admitted he had stolen the car.
The case will continue Tuesday in the east courtroom in the Grayson County
Courthouse with Judge James Fry presiding.
---------
http://www.heralddemocrat.com/artic.../iq_1766896.txt
Up to the jury
Thomas deliberations begin Monday
By Jerrie Whiteley
Herald Democrat
The capital murder trial known as the State vs Andre Thomas has been
complicated and tense from the beginning, and Friday's closing arguments
were no different.
The jury will begin to deliberate Monday morning. If jurors find Thomas knew
what he was doing when he killed Laura Boren Thomas, Andre Boren and Leyha
Marie Hughes last year, they could convict him of capital murder. The trial
would then move into a second phase with the jury deciding if he should
spend the rest of his life in prison or die for his crime.
If, however, jurors find Thomas was controlled by a delusion at the time he
killed his estranged wife and her children, they could send him to a mental
hospital for the immediate future.
Attorneys had up to 60 minutes each to address a jury that has heard from a
handful of expert psychiatrists and dozens of other witnesses in the case.
Grayson County District Attorney Joe Brown started the marathon session by
reminding the jury where the whole thing began - with a mother and her two
small children.
Brown said the jury has heard a great deal about Andre Thomas and the
problems going on in his life. But, the trial isn't about Thomas, Brown
said. It's about getting justice for Laura, little Andre and Leyha.
Brown was all energy as he entered the courtroom just a little before 1 p.m.
and the energy stayed up as he gave what has to count as the closing of his
life. In the first part of his second term in office, Brown has tried a few
prominent cases, but none as serious as capital murder, and none as
off-the-chart, high profile as a triple murder.
"I want you to remember Laura and kids. She died not quickly. She died not
painlessly," Brown said as he recounted how Mrs. Thomas must have felt as
she fought off her estranged husband's assault on her. Brown told the jury
she was probably alive when Thomas left her bleeding on the floor and headed
for her children.
Members of the Boren family and friends cried loudly as Brown talked about
the pain and fear the children must have felt during the attack. Brown
showed the jury photos of the young mother and her children smiling. Then,
he held up the large photos of them after the attack. The prosecutor said
Thomas knew what he was doing as he viciously stabbed the three.
Brown said Thomas did what he did to his wife and her children, "because he
is mean and he was jealous. He wanted Laura back and she wouldn't take him
back. He wanted to take everything from Bryant Hughes who had what he
couldn't have."
Brown said Thomas drank and took drugs until he worked himself into a
rage-filled stupor and then went to Laura's apartment and killed what he
couldn't have for his own. The prosecutor then warned the jury about what
they would hear from the defense. Brown said lots of people tried to get
Thomas the help he said he wanted. He reminded them that each time, it was
Thomas who left or failed to show up to get the help.
"His brutality brought us to this courtroom," Brown said pointing at Thomas
in the last few minutes of the state's opening remarks.
When Brown sat down, the jury got a break. As they left the room, defense
attorneys R.J. Hagood and Bobbie Peterson prepared to give the jury their
side of the case. This is not the first capital murder case for either of
them. Dressed in a dark suit and carrying an ever-present Coke bottle,
Hagood patted his client on the back once or twice while the jury was out.
Between the time when the jurors returned and Hagood began his statement, he
fished under a nearby bench for a large wooden dowel he had brought into the
courtroom.
As he walked into the space between the jury box and the judge's bench,
Hagood talked about how both the human mind and the piece of wood are
generally considered to be strong and reliable under normal circumstances.
"In the right time and under the right circumstances, the board snaps,"
Hagood said as he broke the piece of wood into two sections. He then
continued that his client's mind snapped just as surely as the dowel had and
he shouldn't be held responsible for what he had done.
"How could a man do something like this?" Hagood said, acknowledging the
question he said he knows the jurors have been asking themselves.
"I think in a case like this, you have to look not only at the facts and
circumstances, you have to get into the mind of Andre Thomas," Hagood said.
He then told the jury they have to start with the fact that Thomas suffered,
at the time of the crime, from a mental illness. He then reminded them of
the expert witness, Dr. Edward Gripon, whom the defense called to help the
jury see what the defense has called Thomas' "journey into madness."
Hagood reminded them that the doctor had said someone suffering from
schizophrenia can have moments of clarity and rational discussions as long
as the discussion veers clear of the delusions. Hagood said the defense is
asking the jury to look at the whole of Thomas' behavior from early 2004
until the killings and see a pattern of disintegration in Thomas' mental
state.
The state, Hagood warned, wants the jury to look only at pieces of Thomas'
life before and after the crime. Hagood reminded them that Thomas has
repeatedly told people he thought he was doing God's work when he killed the
three people and that a God-fearing person wouldn't consider answering God's
commands to be wrong. It is key to the defense case that Thomas did not know
what he did was wrong because, in order to find that Thomas was insane at
the time of the killings, the jury must find that he suffered from a mental
illness so severe it kept him from knowing his actions were wrong.
To try to bring the jury closer to that decision, Hagood reminded them of
Bible verses that refer to Jezebel and the suffering she should have endured
for her sins. Hagood said it is beyond insane for anyone to take such a
verse literally enough to actually kill someone he or she thought to be
Jezebel. Then, Hagood reminded the jury of the other Bible verse his client
took literally and the damaged right eye the verse caused. He then pleaded
with them to follow their own minds.
"What we are asking you to do will take some courage and conviction. Perhaps
we ought to have a verdict that says guilty, but insane. But you don't have
that option. You have to wrap your arms around the not guilty and then go to
insane," Hagood told them.
He then sat down and left it up to Peterson to complete the closing. She
used a computer and a large screen to walk the jury back over the evidence
she said proved her client was insane at the time of the crime. She told the
jury that they should stop looking for rational explanations for what Thomas
did because there aren't any. The actions and the man, she said aren't
rational and can't be viewed as such no matter how one tries.
Peterson tried to dispel the state's major theory of reason in the case. The
state says the combination of alcohol, marijuana and DXM that Thomas was
ingesting caused him to go into a drug induced psychosis and that state
caused him to kill his three victims. Peterson said there was no way Thomas
had that much of the drugs in his system at the time of the killings. She
reminded the jury of testimony about how long those drugs stay in a person's
system and how little of the drugs Thomas had when he was tested at the
hospital after the crimes.
Then, she centered in on the DXM. She grabbed a grocery bag and walked
toward the jury. Peterson took from the bag a number of cold remedies and
spread them along the bar in front of the jury. The name-brand products
included items made for children. Peterson argued how can a substance
Americans give their children every day cause the kind of brutal violence
Thomas displayed on his victims. Especially, she stressed in the low levels
he would have had in his blood at the time of the killings. It just
couldn't, she asserted.
"You have to look at his actions in the context of his delusions," Peterson
said. She said the jury must remember that the Thomas who took duct tape to
the crime scene (an act which the prosecution says proves he knew what he
was doing was wrong) was the same man who took three knives because he
didn't want to cross contaminate the blood of the people he fully intended
to kill. Those, she said are not rational thoughts.
She said Andre Thomas didn't go to his estranged wife's apartment to kill
her and their son and her daughter. He went there to kill Jezebel, the
Antichrist and a demon. He went there to save the world and be redeemed in
the eyes of God. How any one jumps from murder to redemption with God is
only possible to understand if one is as crazy as Thomas was on the day he
committed the crime, Peterson said. She also reminded the jury that every
time Thomas attempted to get help he was left alone or allowed to leave
without getting it. She said a rational person wouldn't seek help and then
leave without getting it, but Thomas wasn't rational.
First Assistant Grayson County District Attorney Kerye Ashmore was the last
person to address the jury Friday. A former district attorney for Lamar
County, Ashmore has tried a number of high profile cases. His mission in the
Thomas case was to put the jury back on the track Brown had laid earlier. He
did so by reminding the jury of the burdens the defense must bear in the
case. He said it was up to Hagood and Peterson to prove "by the greater
weight of the credible evidence" that Thomas was insane at the time of the
crime. Ashmore reminded the jury that the law presumes Thomas to be sane and
that, if jurors, individually, haven't seen enough in the defense case to
make them think Thomas was insane, they must also presume him sane.
He said the defense case rests on the assumption that Thomas was so wrapped
up in the religious delusion that he didn't know he was killing his wife,
their son, and her daughter. In order for that to fit the insanity defense,
Ashmore contended, then Thomas would have had to stay with that delusion.
Ashmore reminded the jury of the number of times that Thomas asked to be
forgiven in the days and months after the crime. If, Ashmore said, Thomas
had just killed three people he thought were so evil that God wanted them
killed, why was he asking for forgiveness?
Ashmore said Thomas even used the word "murdered" when he turned himself
into the police department. He said he had just "murdered my wife." Murder
is a legal term that means to kill without justification.
Further, Ashmore said, Thomas left the scene of the crime rather than
staying there and showing, proudly, what he had done at God's command.
Ashmore restated testimony that reflected Thomas' repeated admissions to
people that he thought what he did was wrong and that the drugs caused it.
That admission is likely to be key since Texas law says a person who commits
a crime while intoxicated at his own choosing, is guilty of that crime.
Choosing to use drugs, Ashmore contended, was not a directive from God. If
the drugs drove Thomas to commit the crimes, or even if they drove Thomas to
think that God wanted him to commit the crimes, then the jury must not find
him insane.
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