IA: Prosecutor paints slaying scene
KaEfEr @LilyPad
Prosecutor paints slaying scene
By COLLEEN KRANTZ
Register Staff Writer
04/06/2002
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Waukon, Ia. - A prosecutor in Clay Thomas' double-murder trial
painted a graphic picture Friday of the night Angela Hyke and her
8-year-old daughter were killed.
Defense lawyers responded by saying they won't dispute much about the
circumstances leading to the deaths of the Cresco woman and her
daughter, Ashley Lucas. Instead, Thomas' attorneys said as the trial
began that they will show how a brain injury left him incapable of
planning a murder.
Thomas, 25, a carnival worker from Atchison, Kan., is on trial on two
counts of first-degree murder. The lawyers made their opening
statements, and the first witnesses took the stand Friday before a
packed courtroom.
Thomas met Hyke at the Howard County Fair in late June. He spent a
night with her when her daughter was gone, then returned a few weeks
later with the carnival and went to her home again.
Thomas H. Miller, an assistant attorney general helping prosecute the
case, described 25-year-old Hyke during his opening statements as a
lonely single mother who acted uncharacteristically when she allowed a
man she barely knew to spend the night last summer.
Miller then described what he thinks happened during those early
morning hours of July 9:
Hyke was resting her head in the crook of Clay Thomas' arm as they lay
on the sofa, Miller said. Upstairs, her daughter was asleep.
"He began tightening his arm around her throat," Miller said. "As he
began to squeeze . . . Angela Hyke became alarmed and said, "What are
you doing? Cut it out." "
Thomas then told Hyke how he planned to kill her and steal her car.
"She succeeded in getting away from him briefly, but there wasn't much
of a scuffle" before Thomas overpowered her and strangled her. He
later went upstairs and strangled the sleeping Ashley with the leg of
a pair of jeans, Miller said.
Miller said a taped confession from Thomas would be presented later in
the trial.
Wife testifies
Thomas' wife, Bobbi Thomas, then took the stand. She said her husband
had been gone all night. She was still waiting up for him when he
arrived in a stolen car around 6 a.m. at the Howard County Fairgrounds
in Cresco, where the carnival company they worked for had camped for
the night.
They packed their belongings and were driving when Clay Thomas told
her they had to get rid of a couple of bodies, Bobbi Thomas said. When
she objected, he retaliated.
"I got burned with a cigarette lighter," Bobbi Thomas told jurors.
They continued on to Hyke's home and went inside, she said.
On the floor
"I saw Angela laying on the floor, and Ashley was next to her," said
Bobbi Thomas, speaking softly.
She went on to describe how they put the bodies into the trunk of
Hyke's car and drove to Atchison, where they buried them in a shallow
grave near a state park.
Bobbi Thomas, who now lives in Missouri, appeared frustrated when one
of her husband's attorneys asked about lies she originally told
investigators and about why she didn't run from her husband when they
stopped for gas, when they went into a ditch near Atchison or when
they spent a week at her brother-in-law's apartment in Wichita.
"I was scared, OK?" she snapped at defense attorney Susan Flander.
Bobbi Thomas acknowledged that she was told by investigators that they
would recommend that she not be charged if she cooperated. She has not
been charged.
She acknowledged her husband's presence when she entered the courtroom
with a glance but didn't look at him again.
Life term if convicted
Clay Thomas faces life in prison if convicted of the two counts of
first-degree murder.
During her opening statements, Letitia Turner, Thomas' second
attorney, said the trial will be unusual in that the defense won't
dispute many allegations.
Instead, the jury must consider a severe head injury that Thomas
suffered during an automobile accident in 1995, when he was 18, she
said. The accident, which prosecutors concede took place, left Thomas
in a coma for three days and caused permanent brain damage, Turner
said. The damage was to the part of the brain that allows a person to
plan in advance and act accordingly, she said.
"We are talking about a permanent, physical disability," Turner said.
"That is the crux, ladies and gentlemen, of this case."
Thomas doesn't have the mental capacity for premeditation, a necessary
element to convict a person of first-degree murder, she said.
When attorneys use the defense of diminished capacity, "they are not
saying the person isn't responsible, but (addressing) the level of
responsibility," Turner said.
Really happy, friend says
Several of the victims' relatives, friends and law enforcement
officials also testified Friday. Lisa Peckham, a friend of Hyke's,
described how Hyke had told her the day before she died about meeting
a man.
"She wouldn't tell me where he was from or what he did or anything,"
Peckham said, sobbing. "She just said she was really happy."
The trial will resume Monday.