After listening to an apology for a mass shooting on New Year’s Eve on Dauphin Street in Mobile, a judge Friday sentenced the admitted gunman to 25 years in prison.
on New Year’s Eve on Dauphin Street, a judge Friday sentenced the admitted gunman to 25 years in prison.to murder and first-degree assault. But she added that the circumstances of the crime demand a long period of incarceration.
“Good people … do bad things,” Davis said before pronouncing sentence. “And for those bad things, you don’t get a get-out-of-jail-free card. They have to be punished.” Davis sentenced Thomas, 25, to 25 years for the murder and 20 years for the assault, to be served together at the same time that the Mobile man serves a 10-year federal sentence for illegal possession of a machine gun conversion device. “This happened at an event that put our state, our community in the national spotlight. … To say, ‘I’m sorry’ is not enough,” she said. On Frirday, witness after witness described Thomas as a quiet and respectful young man who avoided clubs and crowds – the very kind of person least likely to be involved in a shooting. Yet, by his own admission, Thomas pulled a gun equipped with a machine gun conversion device and fatally shot JaTerious Reives. He then exchanged gunfire with a friend of Reives. They wounded each other and seven others who had gathered for the New Year’s Eve celebration on Dec. 31, 2022. It was about 45 minutes before the annual MoonPie drop several blocks away, and several businesses on Dauphin Street also sustained damage from the flying bullets.“I can understand where the judge is coming from for this, but I am disappointed in that, because I believe wholeheartedly that he acted in self-defense,” Dearman said outside the courtroom. “However, by having a Glock switch on his gun took away most of the protections of the self-defense statute.” The victim’s mother, Natasha Reives, told FOX10 News in a text message that she believes that Thomas’ self-defense claim is baseless. “God sits high and looks low and he knew the absolute truth of the matter that my son had never pulled a gun on this young man nor threatened his life,” she wrote.Rieves wrote that she had hoped for a longer sentence. “My son doesn’t get to come back to earth in 25 years and start his life over, and he’ll get to start his life over,” she wrote “But I will say I truly appreciate the judge in her decision to give him the maximum amount of time that was presented to her from the DA and prosecutors in my son’s case. None of this will bring my son back to us, but not having to go back to court anytime soon does give me a small form of peace right now.” Thomas told the judge that he legally purchased a handgun in October 2022 for his protection He said at the gun range, some people told him there was a simple device that could “make it shoot better.” That device a Glock switch, converts a semiautomatic pistol into a fully automatic machine gun. “It may sound crazy,” Thomas said. “I just thought it was cool. … I know how stupid it sounds. I never thought I’d use it.” Thomas said he did not know Reives but that they had words that evening. He said Reives threatened him, walked down the street to get a gun from someone and then made his way back toward him.Dearman said Thomas was wrong to have a Glock switch. But he said his client’s desire for protection was rational. “Look where he lives,” he said. “Two people were murdered on the street. Three people were carjacked two blocks over. … I mean, it’s constant crime over there, and everybody is armed.” Dearman said this was the most difficult case he ever has handled, not because of the circumstances but because of his client. “This really is a good kid – not just a good kid, an exceptional kid, the kind of kid that you want, the one that will not follow the crowd, the one that always does his work, makes good grades, helps his family,” he said. Mobile County Assistant District Attorney Matt Simpson, who prosecuted the case, noted that Reives did not shoot his gun. The prosecutor alluded to the victim’s mother in the front row. “Her son is not here because of the decisions that Thomas Thomas made – a string of bad decisions,” he said. The incident fits the precise set of facts that prompted Simpson, who also is a state representative from Daphne, toMobile County District Attorney Keith Blackwood said shootings like this one helped spur Simpson to sponsor it. “That’s something that’s gonna be a very important tool that we have to stop these mass shootings, to have the highest punishment possible when people, for instance, take a Glock switch into a crowd at a New Year’s celebration.” Blackwood said Thomas’ decision to plead guilty eliminated the risk that a jury might be sympathetic to his self-defense claim. “I think all of the circumstances, including that one, played into this decision,” he said. “However, he accepted responsibility. He pled guilty to both of these very serious charges. He will go to prison for a long time.”Video shows University of Alabama student falling into water in SpainMan arrested in fatal shooting on Vienna Avenue, Mobile police saySouthwest Mobile County Chamber of Commerce honors community leaders at annual galaSecond arrest made in Forest Glenn Court shooting; bond set for another suspect
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