Marines to Court-Martial Sergeant for Murder in Death of His Wife

An El Toro Marine accused of bludgeoning his wife to death, strapping her body in a vehicle and pushing it off a cliff on Ortega Highway will be court-martialed on a charge of premeditated murder, the Marine Corps announced Thursday.

Sgt. Joseph L. Thomas is scheduled to be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. today at Camp Pendleton and will face a general court-martial for the capital offense, according to Sgt. Deborah Bragagnini.

The decision to court-martial Thomas was made after a military proceeding similar to a grand jury hearing, which ended July 8 at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. The hearing officer, Maj. John Walsh, recommended trial by court-martial, Bragagnini said. The recommendation was accepted by Col. Paul Schafer, commanding officer of Marine Wing Support Group 27, and Maj. Gen. D.E.P. Miller, commanding general of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing and Thomas’ commanding officer.

A court-martial conviction could carry a death penalty.

Thomas’ civilian attorney, Edward W. Hall of Santa Ana, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Found in Wreckage

The body of Melinda Jean Thomas, 24, who was four months pregnant, was discovered Dec. 10, 1987, in the wreckage of her burned car at the bottom of an embankment near Ortega Highway in Riverside County.

Originally, the Riverside County coroner declared her death a suicide, based on circumstances of the crash and a despondent note written to her husband. But a Naval Investigative Service inquiry into her death led to her husband’s arrest. Melinda Thomas had been a “cooperative witness” in drug investigations for the NIS.

A friend of Sgt. Thomas had testified at the hearing that he was at the Thomases’ apartment in the Tustin Marine Corps Air Station and heard Melinda Thomas yell out from the bedroom, “Please don’t hit me . . . please stop hitting me. I love you. Please don’t kill me.” Lance Cpl. Michael Nelson said he saw Thomas hitting his wife with a tire iron as he straddled her on the bed.

Nelson, who was granted immunity for his testimony, said he tried to push Thomas away but froze when Thomas threatened him with the tire iron. Thomas hit his wife four or five more times, Nelson said. The two men then wrapped her body in a quilt and stuffed it into the trunk of a rental car, he said.

They drove the car and the Thomases’ late model Suzuki Samurai up the twisting mountain road, strapped the body into the Samurai, doused the vehicle with gasoline and pushed it over an embankment, Nelson said. They had attempted to light the vehicle before it rolled over, but it failed to catch fire, Nelson testified. Nelson, at the urging of Thomas, crawled down the bank and torched the car, he said.

But Thomas’ attorney attacked the credibility of the star witness. Hall told Walsh, the hearing officer, that Thomas should not be court-martialed because Nelson’s testimony was contradicted by his earlier statements to military investigators.

Hall said Nelson lied to the NIS in January, when he never mentioned murder, and lied again on April 5 when he was given immunity, telling investigators he had overheard the couple struggling in the bedroom, and then saw Thomas emerge.

Thomas, who remarried in March, is being held at the Camp Pendleton brig.