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Thomas v. Commonwealth6/5/1992
OPINION BY CHIEF JUSTICE HARRY L. CARRICO
On January 23, 1991, Douglas Christopher Thomas, then seventeen years of age, appeared in juvenile court charged with first degree murder in the killing of James Baxter
Wiseman, II, Code § 18.2-32, and with capital murder in the killing of Kathy J. Wiseman as a part of the same act or transaction of killing James Baxter Wiseman, II, Code § 18.2-31(7). Thomas was also charged with two offenses of using a firearm in the killing of the victims. Code § 18.2-53.1.
In a written instrument signed by Thomas and his counsel, Thomas waived both a preliminary hearing and a transfer hearing. As a result, the matter was transferred to circuit court, where, on January 28, 1991, Thomas was indicted for the four offenses with which he had been charged in juvenile court.
Trial on all four charges was set for May 29, 1991, and then continued to August 21 of the same year. Upon arraignment on August 21, Thomas entered pleas of guilty to the charges of first degree murder and use of a firearm in the killing of Mr. Wiseman and pleas of not guilty to the charges of capital murder and use of a firearm in the killing of Mrs. Wiseman.
The trial court announced that it would accept Thomas's pleas of guilty to the charges involving the death of Mr. Wiseman and that it would order a pre-sentence report with respect to those charges. The trial court also accepted Thomas's pleas of not guilty to the charges involving Mrs. Wiseman's death, and trial proceeded before a jury on those charges.
In the first phase of the trial, the jury convicted Thomas of capital murder and use of a firearm in the commission of the killing of Kathy Wiseman and fixed punishment on the weapons charge at four years in the penitentiary. In the second phase, the jury fixed Thomas's punishment for capital murder at death, based upon a finding of "vileness."
Following receipt of the report of a probation officer, the trial court held a sentencing hearing and imposed the sentences fixed by the jury in the death of Mrs. Wiseman. At the same hearing, the court sentenced Thomas to sixty-five years' imprisonment for the first degree murder of Mr. Wiseman and two years, imprisonment for the use of a firearm in that killing.
Thomas is before this Court for automatic review of his death sentence, and we have consolidated that review with the appeal of his capital murder conviction. Code § 17-110.1. In accordance with Code § 17-110.2, we have given the matter priority on our docket.
THE FACTS
The record shows that Thomas lived with his aunt and uncle, Brenda and Herbert Marshall, at Piankatank Shores in Middlesex County. Lanie Creech, Mrs. Marshall's twelve-year-old niece, also lived in the home.
Thomas had been involved for some time in a "very intimate" relationship with fourteen-year-old Jessica Wiseman, who lived with her parents, "J. B." and Kathy Wiseman, several blocks from the Marshall residence. Jessica's parents were threatening to break up the relationship. Jessica had been wearing Thomas's class ring "for a long time," but Mrs. Wiseman made Jessica "give it back." Some three months before the murders occurred, Jessica was heard to say that she "wished to get rid of [her parents]."
Mr. and Mrs. Wiseman were murdered in the early morning hours of November 10, 1990, a Saturday. On the preceding Tuesday, Lanie Creech overheard
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