By Joseph A. Slobodzian
Inquirer Staff Writer
Plenty of people have problems with their in-laws.
Not many of those troubles rise to the level of Corbin Thomas'.
On trial in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court on charges that he had his wife killed, and acting as his own lawyer, Thomas confronted his mother-in-law on the witness stand Thursday.
"You don't like me, do you?" he asked Dornell Morgan, mother of his murdered wife.
"Why should I like you?" Morgan replied, anger barely hidden. "You never gave me the opportunity. Why would I like you? I don't know you."
It didn't get better for Thomas, 46, a convicted marijuana trafficker and money launderer already serving a 35-year federal prison term.
In about 20 minutes of icy answers to Thomas' questions, Morgan made it clear why they never got along and why she believes he ordered the Nov. 14, 1995, killing of her 29-year-old daughter, Hope.
During testimony, which started Tuesday, Thomas also had questioned his daughter, Danielle, who was in the house when her mother was shot to death.
Friday, Thomas gets to grill himself.
Having fired his lawyer, he will take the stand to try to convince a jury that he is the innocent victim of lying former drug associates and vengeful in-laws.
Hope Thomas' killing shocked her Cedarbrook neighbors. A gunman in a Wolfman mask accosted her as she unlocked the rear door to their Fayette Street home.
Danielle, then 7, was tied up and left in an upstairs bedroom. Hope Thomas was led to a basement shower stall and shot in the head. The house was ransacked.
Police initially suspected Corbin Thomas because the couple had separated and Hope Thomas had filed for divorce and obtained a protection-from-abuse order.
But the masked gunman escaped, and with no physical evidence to tie Corbin Thomas to the killing, police let him go. Four months later, he fled. Not until 2002 was he was arrested in London and extradited to the United States.
Judge Rose Marie DeFino-Nastasi told the jurors that after Thomas testified Friday morning they would hear closing arguments, get legal instructions from her, and begin deliberating.
On Thursday, Assistant District Attorney Gail Fairman presented her last witnesses, including Morgan, who lives in Philadelphia.
Morgan described how Danielle called her about 11:45 the night of the murder and said, "A thief came and took Mommy, and I'm all alone." She also testified about her daughter's deteriorating marriage during the summer of 1995.
She then underwent intense questioning by the man she said she believes ordered her daughter's murder.
Despite the palpable hostility, Thomas did not shy away from trying to prove his mother-in-law was "overbearing and intrusive."
"You disliked your daughter, didn't you?" the amateur attorney asked, referring to an estrangement that apparently started a year or two before Hope and Corbin married in 1988 - and ended right before she was killed.
"How could you ask a question like that?" Morgan shot back. "I loved her - much more than you did."
Morgan said she had never been formally introduced to Corbin Thomas, had never been invited to the couple's home, and had not met Danielle until the girl was almost 3. Thomas did not attend his wife's funeral, Morgan added.
She also testified about a September 1995 meeting she attended with Hope; her other daughter, Althea Smith; and federal agents at a City Avenue hotel. The agents were investigating Thomas and his marijuana and money-laundering ring and wanted Hope Thomas to cooperate.
Her daughter was afraid of her husband, Morgan said. Morgan said she had told her that he raped her at gunpoint, spat in her face, and beaten her, and that she had never agreed to help the agents.
Fairman alleges Thomas contracted the shooting because he feared his wife was cooperating in the federal probe.
Thomas has argued that he is the victim of lying former drug associates and his in-laws' enmity.
"Isn't it true that you borrowed $150 from me?" Thomas asked his mother-in-law.
"What?" Morgan replied, her voice rising. "That is not true."
Thomas' singsong response: "Now, don't be angry, Ms. Morgan."
Contact staff writer Joseph A. Slobodzian at 215-854-2985 or jslobodzian@phillynews.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment