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Thread: Steven Alan Thomas - Texas Death Row

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    Steven Alan Thomas - Texas Death Row


    Mildred McKinney




    Prosecutors to seek death penalty in 1980 Williamson County murder case

    By Claire Osborn
    The Austin American-Statesman

    ROUND ROCK — The Williamson County District Attorney’s Office has announced it will seek the death penalty against Steven Alan Thomas, the man accused in a 1980 murder case that hinges on a fingerprint and a DNA sample from a grisly homicide scene.

    Mildred McKinney, 73, was restrained, beaten, sexually assaulted and then strangled in her own bed at her home on Sherbourne Street, in what was then southwestern Williamson County. The case baffled authorities for 32 years until DNA tests led to Thomas’ arrest in July 2012.

    http://www.statesman.com/news/news/l...illiams/nffzP/

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    Change in venue sought in 1980 murder trial

    By Claire Osborn
    The Austin American-Statesman

    An attorney for a man who could face the death penalty if convicted in the 1980 slaying of a 73-year-old woman in Williamson County has asked a judge for a change of venue.

    The capital murder trial of Steven Alan Thomas, 56, is schedued to begin Oct. 13 in Georgetown.

    Thomas is accused of beating, sexually assaulting and strangling Mildred McKinney in her bed in her southwestern Williamson County home in November 1980.

    One of Thomas’ attorneys, Allan Williams, filed a motion Sept. 23 asking that the trial be moved to another county because of “extensive pretrial publicity” in newspapers, radio and television.

    The publicity has created an unfair and hostile environment toward Thomas and “prejudiced the opinions of members of the community,” the motion said.

    The murder case has been notorious because serial killer Henry Lee Lucas had falsely confessed to the killing. There was later speculation that McKinney’s death could be related to the 1986 slaying of Christine Morton, who lived about half a mile away.

    Morton’s husband, Michael Morton, was wrongfully convicted in his wife’s death and spent 25 years in prison. He was exonerated in 2011 by DNA evidence that linked another man — Mark Norwood — to Christine Morton’s death.

    After police arrested Norwood in 2011, he became a suspect in the McKinney slaying until authorities said they found no DNA evidence linking him to the crime. Norwood was later convicted in the death of Christine Morton.

    Investigators at the Williamson County sheriff’s office didn’t get a break in the McKinney case until 2012, when they received a report about a recent search in a federal DNA database that showed Thomas’ DNA matched DNA taken from an item used to restrain her.

    Authorities had Thomas’ DNA in the system because he pleaded guilty in 2012 to possession of marijuana, a conviction that required him to submit a DNA sample.

    One of Thomas’ fingerprints also was found in McKinney’s home, according to an arrest warrant.

    Thomas was described as a self-employed carpenter in court documents.

    http://www.statesman.com/news/news/c...r-trial/nhZSW/

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    1980 cold case murder trial begins for Steven Alan Thomas

    By Jackie Vega
    KXAN

    WILLIAMSON COUNTY, Texas — Opening arguments began in a case surrounding a murder mystery that’s gone unsolved for the past 34 years. Steven Alan Thomas is charged with capital murder in connection to that cold case, and his trial began

    Monday morning in Williamson County. The capital murder case — happening in the 26th District Court with Judge Carnes — carries a possible death penalty.

    Police say the break in the murder mystery came more than two years ago — all because of a drug arrest in early August 2012. That arrest may have helped crack the 1980 cold case murder. Investigators say his DNA matched DNA collected at the 1980 murder scene of Mildred McKinney, 73. She was beaten to death in her home.

    And decades after the 1980 killing, there are some answers as to why it took so long to find a DNA match to Thomas. Up until his arrest in August 2012, the 55-year-old’s criminal history — marijuana possession and family violence — included charges that did not require him to give a DNA. That was until his arrest on federal drug charges. A federal felony arrest automatically requires someone to give a DNA sample, which is entered in to a nationwide database. That is how Williamson County investigators say they tied Thomas to the crime. And while they are convinced he’s responsible for McKinney’s death, Thomas’ mother, Rita Thomas, has said she does not believe he committed the crime.

    “I know what this sounds like. I know it sounds like: a mother defending her child. I’m not that kind of mother,” said Rita Thomas. “My son is a hell of a long way from being an angel, but he’s even further away from being the monster they’re portraying him.”

    Thomas denies killing McKinney.

    http://kxan.com/2014/10/20/1980-cold...n-alan-thomas/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
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    Capital murder trial of Steven Thomas goes to jury Monday

    Lawyers will present closing arguments Monday in the capital murder trial of Steven Thomas, who is accused of beating, sexually assaulting and strangling a 73-year-old lady in 1980 in Williamson County. Defense lawyers rested their side of the case Friday devoid of presenting any witnesses.

    Thomas, who was arrested in 2012 and charged in the death of Mildred McKinney, told District Judge Burt Carnes on Friday that he had decided not to testify in the case. Thomas talked to the judge when the jury was out of the space.

    http://www.dailynewsen.com/local/cap...-h2796467.html
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    Steven Thomas found guilty of capital murder in 1980 slaying

    A Williamson County jury has just found Steven Thomas guilty of capital murder. The jurors deliberated for about three and a half hours.

    http://www.statesman.com/news/news/c...to-jury/nhsYj/

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    Prosecutor calls Steven Thomas ‘the face of evil’ as jurors weigh fate

    A jury began deliberating at 11 a.m. Friday whether to sentence Steven Thomas to death or life in prison for the 1980 murder of Mildred McKinney in Williamson County.

    Thomas, 56, was convicted Monday of capital murder. McKinney, 73, was beaten, sexually assaulted and strangled at her Williamson County home. Thomas was arrested in 2012 because DNA he was required to provide for a federal drug charge matched DNA found at the crime scene.

    If he receives life in prison, he would be eligible for parole in 20 years under the law that was in effect in 1980.

    In the sentencing phase of the trial, the jurors have been asked to determine whether Thomas poses a future threat to society or whether there are any mitigating circumstances in his life that would not warrant a death sentence.

    Prosecutor Josh Reno said there were no mitigating factors in Thomas’ life. Beginning in his 20s when Thomas worked for a pesticide company, he stole pills from customers, threatened to burn down the apartment of a friend, abused his wife, threatened his brother with a gun and dealt drugs, Reno said.

    In his 30s Thomas shot a gun at his neighbor’s truck, got so high on drugs that his son couldn’t wake him up, threatened his ex-wife so much that she got a protective order against him and was arrested for possession of drugs and weapons, Reno said. “He’s in group therapy the whole time this stuff is going on,” Reno said.

    When Thomas was in his 40s and talking to police about the death of a friend, he mentioned how much cocaine he could do, and in his 50s, Thomas moved to Garland where he choked his girlfriend’s son, Reno said.

    “You have seen the face of evil and he’s sitting in the courtroom today,” said Reno.

    Defense attorney Steve Brittain said witnesses had testified that the best way to determine whether a defendant would be a threat in prison to other inmates or guards was to look at how the defendant had behaved when previously incarcerated.

    Thomas was in jail for two years before the trial and “was written up once for something that’s not even in the rulebook,” said Brittain.

    Witnesses during the trial talked about violent acts Thomas committed, but the jury never got to hear the other side of the story, Brittain said. He said a grand jury decided there wasn’t enough evidence to press charges in the case that involved Thomas choking his girlfriend’s son.

    Defense lawyer Allan Williams said if jurors chose to give Thomas the death sentence, they would have to live with that decision for the rest of their lives. “I’m pleading for life, for understanding, for charity, for kindness, for infinite mercy,” he said.

    “The life of a sinner has value; all life has value,” he said. Friends and relatives testified that they saw value in Thomas’ life and Thomas’ son “loves his father and always will,” Williams said.

    Prosecutor Lytza Rojas stood up after Williams finished his closing argument. Rojas said McKinney’s family had suffered in the 34 years since her death while Thomas had been “hiding in plain sight.”

    She also said that Thomas had been able to traffic “$10,000 worth of dope into our community” two years ago even though he had an enlarged heart and an enlarged prostate, according to testimony about his health from a doctor.

    “Did those physical ailments slow him down in any way?” she said. “TDC (Texas Department of Corrections) isn’t ready for him; they don’t even have an accurate prediction of what he is going to do.”

    She said Thomas had chosen to be a drug dealer, a pimp, a recruiter for a drug cartel, a thief and a killer. “The death penalty is reserved for the worst of the worst,” she said. “How could this possibly not be in this category?”

    http://www.statesman.com/news/news/c...evil-as/nhxHs/
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  7. #7
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    Wilco jury sentences Steven Allen Thomas to Death

    By Tom Miller
    KVUE

    GEORGETOWN, Texas -- A Williamson County jury sentenced a man to death Friday for the murder of a 73-year-old woman 34 years ago.

    Steven Thomas is the first person to be sentenced to death in Williamson County in 15 years.

    The jury came back late Monday afternoon with Thomas' guilty capital murder verdict. The jury deliberated for more than eight hours Friday before they sentenced Thomas.

    In the week-long trial prosecutors proved Thomas killed Mildred McKinney at her South Williamson County home early on the morning of Nov. 4, 1980.

    Thomas was working as a bug exterminator and was hired by McKinney. After doing the job, he latered returned to rob, rape, and murder McKinney.

    "This is the stuff of nightmares," Assistant District Attorney Lytza Rojas told the jury. "She should have been safe, in her home, and instead she was beaten to the point that her teeth were protruding through her cheek."

    Thomas' semen was discovered on a ribbon tied to McKinney's finger. That DNA evidence, along with a fingerprint on a bedroom clock, was enough to convince the jury.

    Defense lawyers tried to argue that DNA evidence isn't an exactly science, but were unsuccessful.

    McKinney's grandson Bob Stapleton was just 12 when she died. He sat through the trial, calling it nearly unbearable.

    "It's sheerly unprecedented in its brutality, and I say that not from someone who has experienced it for so long but from someone who learned of it just last week," he said.

    Background:

    In June 2012, DNA evidence and a fingerprint at the scene linked Thomas to the murder.

    Police in Dallas and Austin interviewed Thomas after the murder, but he claimed to not know McKinney and denied sexually assaulting and killing her. Henry Lee Lucas, accused of killing hundreds in the 1960s and 1970s, previously confessed to the crime, but the DNA evidence and fingerprints proved otherwise.

    http://www.kvue.com/story/news/local...rder/17605375/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  8. #8
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    WILLIAMSON COUNTY: Appeals court hearing arguments in 1980 death penalty case

    Lawyers will be making their arguments Wednesday morning in the appeal of a man who was given the death penalty for the capital murder of a 73-year-old Williamson County woman in 1980.

    Steven Thomas was sentenced to death by a Williamson County jury in October 2014 for the killing of Mildred McKinney.

    His lawyers and the lawyers for the state are presenting arguments to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in downtown Austin. The judges are not expected to make a decision on the case Wednesday.

    McKinney was beaten, sexually assaulted and strangled at her Williamson County home. Thomas was arrested in 2012 after DNA he was required to provide for a federal drug charge matched DNA found at the crime scene.

    A DNA analyst from the Texas Department of Public Safety testified at Thomas’ trial that his sperm was found on a ribbon wrapped around one of McKinney’s thumbs. Thomas’ fingerprint also was found on a clock at McKinney’s home, according to another DPS analyst.

    Thomas, who worked for a pesticide service that had been to McKinney’s house, appealed his case in January 2015 to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

    One of Thomas’ lawyers, Ariel Payan, said in his appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeals in August that the evidence presented at the trial showed McKinney was killed by more than one person. No evidence at the trial showed Thomas had killed McKinney or helped commit any other crime against her, Payan said.

    Evidence at the trial showed that a throat swab taken during McKinney’s autopsy showed male DNA that didn’t belong to Thomas and also ruled out other suspects in the case, including serial killer Henry Lee Lucas and his partner Ottis Toole.

    The ribbon wrapped around one of McKinney’s thumbs not only had DNA on it from Thomas but also from an unknown man, according to a DNA analyst who testified at the trial.

    http://www.statesman.com/news/local/...HRrfE77cnbIvL/
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    Conviction and death sentence affirmed.

    http://search.txcourts.gov/SearchMed...d-d3c2a0ff746d

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    APPELLANT'S MOTION FOR REHEARING DENIED:

    http://search.txcourts.gov/handdown....ate=04/11/2018

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