The man accused of strangling his girlfriend to death pleaded guilty to second-degree murder Wednesday as part of an agreement that could set him free in 14 years.
At the hearing, 30-year-old David Thomas asked Anchorage District Court Judge Kevin Saxby to give him the maximum penalty for killing 19-year-old Linda Bower on Sept. 10, 2014. Saxby accepted his plea, but noted that he would not make a decision about the agreement until the sentencing hearing.
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Bower’s family was at the hearing and requested the opportunity to speak before the court.
“Our daughter Linda was only 19 years old when she was senselessly taken from us 2 years, three months and four days ago,” Bower’s father, Lonny Bower, said, calling the plea deal “an insult to justice and a disgrace to our family and our daughter Linda.”
Holding onto a framed photo of her daughter, Sherry Miller tearfully pleaded for Saxby to reject the plea agreement.
“Our daughter no longer has a voice. We her parents and her family, are her voice, and this individual does not deserve parole at any time. My daughter doesn’t get to breathe the air that he breathes. She doesn’t get to fulfill her life as she deserved,” she said. “It may be a good deal for the state, but it is an insult to the family. She’ll never have an opportunity to speak for herself again, and we are her voice and we want to be heard.”
David Thomas
Taking the opportunity to speak for himself at the hearing, Thomas told Saxby that sentencing him to “anything shy of 99 is a great mercy.”
“Having said that, I do ask you to sincerely consider Linda’s family’s petition and just really take to hear their concerns in all the matters,” he said quietly. “Not sure specifically what’s said in the petition, but they are right on the fact that Linda doesn’t a voice in this and they are her voice.”
The hearing was the first time Linda Bower’s family has seen him since he was arraigned.
“To see him for the first time since he was arraigned just opens everything back up — every image, every emotion — and to hear him say that he would basically rather be locked away, it would be an answer to our prayers that we wouldn’t have to go through this, wouldn’t have to go through a trial, endure weeks of pictures and testimony and things that aren’t true cause I know how court systems go,” Miller said. “I know how trials go and she deserves for him to be put away without going to trial.”
Thomas has previously claimed that he remembered putting his hands around Linda Bower’s throat, but said when he woke up, he was on the floor and she was “stiff.” He fled with her body in his brother’s vehicle, and later turned himself in to police.
“What he did was blatant what he did what he set out to do he has no regard for human life and she was only 19 and maybe 100 pounds and what defense did she have?” Miller said. “So I hope I hear her voice till the day I die and this will not end. If it goes bad for us, I will be here on this door every time it’s open and fight for her, she deserved it.
Under the plea agreement, Thomas would we eligible for parole within 16 years, sooner because of time he has already served. He has been in custody since his arrest on Sept. 11, 2014. If he is denied parole, he will be eligible to appeal that decision every two years. Before Senate Bill 91’s passage, Thomas would have had to wait 10 years, and Linda Bower’s family says that change could put them and other families through unnecessary pain more frequently.
“Every two years our family would be forced to go through this, and every other family would be forced to go and live through this just because of SB 91,” Lonny Bower said after the hearing.
Thomas’ sentencing is scheduled for April 2017.
KTVA 11’s Daniella Rivera, Emily Carlson and Shannon Riddle contributed to this report.
The post ‘An insult to justice’: Family of murdered teen begs judge to reject suspect’s plea agreement appeared first on KTVA 11.
