Corbin Thomas faces life without parole nearly 15 years after enlisting a hit man to kill his wife.
By Joseph A. Slobodzian
Inquirer Staff Writer
Almost 15 years after an intruder in a Wolfman mask killed Hope Thomas and terrorized her 7-year-old daughter, a Philadelphia jury has convicted her long-suspected killer.
After just 40 minutes of deliberations Friday, the jury found Corbin Thomas guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy in what prosecutors called a contract killing that was intended to prevent his estranged wife from cooperating in a federal investigation into his marijuana-trafficking business.
Thomas, 46, already serving a 35-year federal prison term on drug and money-laundering charges, did not show any reaction to the verdict.
When Common Pleas Court Judge Rose Marie DeFino-Nastasi asked whether Thomas objected to immediate sentencing, he shrugged and said, "OK."
Conviction for first-degree murder, a premeditated and malicious killing, carries a mandatory life prison term without parole.
Although Thomas did not pull the trigger of the gun that killed his 29-year-old wife - witnesses said he had a nephew do the shooting - the conspiracy conviction carries the same penalty as the first-degree murder count.
The verdict brought tears to Hope Thomas' large family, including her mother, Dornell Morgan, and daughter, Danielle, now 21.
Both testified for the prosecution and endured cross-examination by Corbin Thomas, who acted as his own attorney in the five-day trial.
Afterward, Danielle Thomas wiped away tears and said she had struck a blow for her mother.
"It was very hard," she said of her testimony. "It was as if he disrespected me. Because I felt that he was guilty all along and he still questioned me."
Morgan, who raised Danielle after the murder, praised the legal system. "This has been like living a nightmare," she said. "To see it end the way it has is such a release."
Her son-in-law had accused Morgan of turning his wife against him and spreading the story that he had her killed.
"We always knew that he was the one who killed my daughter," Morgan said.
In court, Thomas said he planned to appeal. The judge appointed defense attorney Barbara A. McDermott - whom Thomas fired so he could represent himself - to handle the appeal.
On the night of Nov. 14, 1995, a gunman in a Wolfman mask accosted Hope Thomas and Danielle as the woman unlocked the door to their Cedarbrook rowhouse. The girl was tied up and left in a bedroom. Hope Thomas was led to a basement shower stall and shot in the head.
Corbin Thomas was initially suspected because the Thomases were separated, a divorce was all but final, and Hope Thomas had a protection-from-abuse order barring her husband from the house.
But the masked gunman escaped, and no physical evidence linked Corbin Thomas to scene.
Police questioned and released Thomas. Four months later, he fled to Jamaica, and later to London.
He was arrested in London in 2002 and was also indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of operating a multimillion drug ring. But British authorities would not extradite him to the United States unless Philadelphia officials agreed not to seek the death penalty.
Assistant District Attorney Gail Fairman argued that the evidence showed Thomas contracted his wife's murder because he feared, wrongly, that she was cooperating with federal agents looking into his drug and money-laundering business.
A key witness against him was Gary St. Louis Gordon, his right-hand man in the drug ring, who testified that Thomas offered him $10,000 to hire someone to kill his wife.
When a first hit man took the money and ran, Thomas turned to his nephew to do the job, Gordon testified. The nephew, Winston "Titos" Thomas, is missing and believed to have been killed in Jamaica for drug activities.
On Friday morning, Thomas testified in his own defense. He insisted that he loved his wife and that she had filed for divorce after coming under the influence of her mother and family, who dislike him.
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