Suspect in Wife’s Slaying Talked About Ways to Murder, Marine Says

The day before the bludgeoned body of his wife was discovered in her wrecked automobile alongside Ortega Highway in Riverside County, Marine Sgt. Joseph L. Thomas talked about different ways to commit murder, one of his friends testified at a military hearing Tuesday at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

Sgt. Jimmie L. Young--who worked with Thomas for nearly two years at the El Toro base--said Thomas was talking about problems he was having with his wife when he abruptly changed the subject to “killing someone” and asked, “If I was going to kill someone, how much would I charge?”

The discussion, according to Young, took place in a lunchroom at the base the day before Melinda Thomas’ body was found. Young, who has since been transferred to the Marine base at Camp Lejeune, N.C., said Thomas, 28, was “upset” about an argument he had with his 24-year-old wife over his short haircut.

The preliminary hearing Tuesday was a continuation of what the military calls an Article 32 proceeding. It began May 17 and was continued to June 7, when the government’s star witness testified that he watched Thomas beat his wife to death with a tire iron in the couple’s apartment at the Tustin Marine Corps Helicopter Air Station. The witness, Lance Cpl. Mitchael Nelson, 24, testified that he then helped Thomas transport the body to Ortega Highway in the trunk of a rental car, place it in Thomas’ 1987 Suzuki Samurai and push it over a steep embankment. At the urging of Thomas, he said, he then crawled down the hill and torched the gasoline-drenched vehicle.

Nelson was given immunity by the Marine Corps to testify against his former friend. Nelson has since left the Marine Corps.

At the conclusion of the Article 32 hearing, the hearing officer will make a recommendation on whether Thomas, who is being held in the brig at Camp Pendleton, should face a court-martial on a murder charge.

On Tuesday, Young testified that he told Thomas that he thought $10,000 would be a reasonable fee to commit a murder, with $5,000 up front. He said he really did not take the whole discussion very seriously because he thought Thomas was “just blowing off steam.” That evening, while at his part-time job at the base exchange, Young said he jokingly told another Marine who needed money about Thomas’ offer.

But the next day, after learning that Thomas’ wife had been found dead, he started to think seriously about his discussion with Thomas. They had also talked about ways to kill a person, who Young assumed was Thomas’ wife. Young recalled that Thomas rejected one suggestion that might prompt a murder investigation but did talk about staging an automobile accident that might include a bomb under the gas pedal and gasoline in the back of the vehicle.

“I didn’t report this to anyone,” Young said under questioning from government prosecutor Capt. Bradley N. Garber. He said that later, when he considered telling his superiors about the discussion with Thomas, he had no real evidence to make any allegations against Thomas.

After the burned vehicle and body were discovered Dec. 10, Melinda Thomas’ death was ruled a suicide by the Riverside County coroner’s office. But later, after Naval Investigative Service agents launched a murder investigation and when Nelson agreed to testify against Thomas, the coroner changed the cause of death to homicide. Officials also changed her alleged place of death from Ortega Highway to the couple’s apartment on the Tustin Marine base.

These changes drew fire Tuesday from two lawyers for Thomas. Defense attorney Maj. Mark Stevens contended that the cause of death was changed only because the Naval Investigative Service came up with a witness who would testify against Thomas. And Thomas’ civilian lawyer, Edward W. Hall of Santa Ana, asked that some of the documents from the coroner’s office establishing the time and place of Melinda Thomas’ death not be allowed as evidence because of what he described as numerous mistakes and inconsistencies.