Local News in Brief : El Toro : Hearing Set Tuesday on Murder Charges
A hearing is scheduled Tuesday to determine if an El Toro Marine charged with killing his wife--whose burned body was found in her car in Riverside County--will stand trial for murder.
Marine Corps officials last week accused Sgt. Joseph Thomas, 28, of murdering his wife Melinda Jean Thomas, 23, late last year. Riverside County coroners initially classified the death a suicide. The Naval Investigative Service opened its own investigation because it doubted the coroner’s findings, Marine officials said.
Since the death of his wife, Thomas, who is being held in the Camp Pendleton brig, has remarried, a Marine spokesman said. Thomas is a member of Marine Wing Support Group 37, the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. Thomas joined the Marines in 1983.
The Article 32 hearing is much like a civilian grand jury hearing to determine if there is sufficient evidence to prosecute. It will be held at the Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro.
Thomas was arrested April 5 and charged with the murder of his wife nine days later.
Naval investigators alleged that Melinda Thomas was killed and then placed in her car to make it look like a suicide.
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