GRAHAM — Attorneys for the state and defense made closing arguments during the final day of testimony in the murder trial of Alphonza Leonard Thomas III on Tuesday.
Prosecutors argued that Thomas killed his wife, Marie “Natasha” Oris-Thomas, with a concrete slab the night of Feb. 1, 2010, before setting their 1155 Maple Ridge Drive home on fire when his plan went awry. A co-defendant and key witness in the case, Ronald Derrick Carroll, of Larch Court, Durham, testified that Thomas planned to kill his wife and make her death look accidental by putting her body in a car and crashing it.
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Carroll said he followed Thomas to Burlington that night and was instructed to help move her body. Instead, Carroll called 911 and reported a murder.
Defense attorney Randle Jones argued that the state honed in too early on Thomas as a suspect and neglected to test evidence that would have shown that Carroll committed the murder with several accomplices. Carroll also threatened to have Thomas’ mother killed if Thomas led investigators to him, Jones said.
The jury will be charged and begin its deliberation of the first-degree murder and first-degree arson charges Wednesday morning when court resumes at 9:30 a.m. in Alamance County Superior Court. If Thomas is found guilty, he faces life in prison. The trial began Sept. 21.
Carroll pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiracy to be an accessory after first-degree murder in exchange for testifying for the state. According to the plea agreement, Carroll will be sentenced to between 73 and 97 months in prison.
During the final hours of testimony Tuesday morning, the defense called several witnesses, including private investigators and Troy Arrington — a cell-mate of both Carroll and Thomas at different times.
Arrington, who lives in Durham, is currently being held in the Alamance County jail on a weapons charge.
He testified that Carroll told him he had committed the murder and arson on Feb. 1, 2010. Arrington testified that Carroll said it was his idea to rob the home and asked Alphonza Leonard Thomas III to wait outside in the car while he committed the crime.
Arrington said he later had contact with Thomas while incarcerated and mentioned to Thomas what Carroll had said to him about the case. Arrington said Thomas didn’t say anything to him about the murder and arson.
Private investigator Mike Cundiff testified he interviewed Arrington on Sept. 13 about what he learned from Carroll while in jail. Cundiff gave the court a digital recording of the interview he conducted with Arrington.
Alamance County Sheriff’s Office Detective Curtis Morris was also called to the stand by the defense Tuesday. The state questioned Morris on whether he had interviewed Arrington about his claimed encounters with Carroll and Thomas while in jail. Morris said he had not interviewed Arrington about the case.
ALAMANCE COUNTY ASSISTANT District Attorney Craig Thompson reviewed the state’s evidence against Thomas during his closing argument.
“This case is like the brick house that little pig built. The defense can huff and puff but they can’t blow this house down,” Thompson said.
Carroll’s account of what happened that night is backed up by video surveillance and phone records aired during the trial, Thompson said. Lab tests showed the remnants of a poisoned cocktail Thomas tried to slip Oris-Thomas were found in the home. Some of those substances – including Tylenol PM and an anti-depressant — were found in Oris-Thomas’ body by toxicologists.
“But the best evidence the state of North Carolina had was defendant’s own statement,” Thompson said, alluding to a taped, three-hour interview with detectives on Feb. 2, 2010.
In that interview, Thomas didn’t show concern for his home or wife and didn’t show curiosity as to how the fire and his wife’s death occurred because “he already knew what happened to his wife. He was there when he killed her,” Thompson said.
Thomas’ hands were injured before that interview. The tips of both middle fingers on his right hand had been severed. Detectives honed in on the injuries. Thomas told them he hurt his hand doing yard work that weekend.
Thompson referred to testimony by Thomas’ co-workers, who saw him that day and didn’t notice injuries, and video surveillance from numerous businesses on Feb. 1, 2010, which didn’t appear to show his hand bandaged.
Jones warned jurors that the state omitted evidence and instructed the medical examiner’s office and the State Bureau of Investigation not to test certain items because it would blow their theory of the case.
Thomas had no motive to kill his wife and burn his home, and would have known that investigators would target him in the investigation immediately, Jones said. Other than an affair with a Durham woman, there were no reported troubles in the marriage between Thomas and Oris-Thomas.
If Thomas had killed his wife, Jones argued, he would have used something other than a slab of concrete from the front of the home, where it would have been noticeably missing. Someone who lived in a home with a fire pit and available gasoline would have used materials to start the fire, but no liquid accelerants were ever found to be used to start the blaze.
“What I told you was that this was a case where the state had focused with tunnel vision on my client, Al Thomas, and excluded other evidence. They put all their trust in Ron Carroll, that trust wasn’t deserved,” Jones said. “
A white Chevrolet Beretta, which Carroll drove that night and had destroyed just days later, wasn’t tested for trace evidence that might have shown Oris-Thomas’ blood inside.
Jones argued that Thomas’ wounds were defensive and inflicted by Carroll, a self-confirmed gang member who wielded the concrete slab during an armed robbery and murder. By holding out on police, Carroll was offered a plea bargain that charged him as an accessory to murder rather than murder.
“Ron Carroll made justice a victim. He made (Oris-Thomas) a victim. Don’t let him make Al Thomas a victim,” Jones said.
In a rebuttal, Alamance County Assistant District Attorney Lori Wickline called Jones’ theory “an insult” to jurors’ common sense.
Carroll’s DNA wasn’t found at the scene, but Thomas’ and Oris-Thomas’ DNA were found in blood samples taken from the concrete slab, which was found in pieces outside the home and surrounded by drops of Thomas’ blood, Wickline said.
The fingers: That’s where the plan screwed up. He wasn’t planning on cutting himself and bleeding in places where his blood shouldn’t be,” Wickline said. “And this is where I think was maybe the only time he panicked. What’s the defendant going to do? As a last resort, he set the house on fire. What’s he going to do? Use available materials, like paper and clothing, to start that fire.”
