Opinion ID: 2633199
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Thomas's statements and conduct after the murders

Text: Sometime after sunrise on August 16, a body was seen floating in the bay. Berkeley Police Detective Fred Eihl arrived at the Berkeley dump landfill area shortly after 11:00 a.m. Detective Eihl testified that he was standing about 30 feet from the body, which was floating facedown. Some white upper clothing was visible, but neither the face nor the legs could be seen. Thomas was standing about 15 feet behind Eihl, about 45 feet from the body. As personnel from the coroner's office began to remove the body from the water, while the face was still not visible and before Eihl could tell whether the body was male or female, Thomas said, That's Mary. Because Thomas had made a tentative identification, Eihl asked him for more information. Thomas told Eihl that he knew the victim only as Mary. Asked when he last saw Mary, Thomas said they had partied the night before in a van just outside the gate. Thomas's account of the party was generally similar to that provided by Jim Prew. Eihl asked Thomas what he did after that. Thomas told him he saw Gioia and Kniffin as he was walking out the dump road from Rainbow Village to Ledger's Liquor Store. Gioia and Kniffin asked him for a match; [12] Thomas stopped to give them one and smoked marijuana with them. He then proceeded to Ledger's, found it closed, and returned to Rainbow Village. He got money and went to various locations to try to purchase marijuana. When it grew light out, he went to a laundromat in the area of University and San Pablo Avenues. [13] After finishing his laundry, he returned to Rainbow Village. [14] Thomas Medlin testified that after Gioia's body was found, Thomas asked him to hold his gun cleaning kit for awhile. Medlin took the kit and hid it in his car. Later, Thomas asked Medlin to hold his ammunition, but Medlin refused and gave him back both the gun cleaning kit and the container with the ammunition. Thomas told Medlin he had been dumpster diving (i.e., searching for salvageable items) all the previous night and had been back and forth from Rainbow Village into town several times. On August 17, Berkeley Police Inspector Daniel Wolke interviewed Thomas at Rainbow Village. Thomas's statement generally agreed with what he had earlier told Detective Eihl, with certain discrepancies. In the August 17 interview, Thomas said that Kniffin was not at the party in Jim Prew's van; in the earlier interview, he had said Kniffin was present. Additionally, he described his encounter with Gioia and Kniffin near the landfill office somewhat differently to Wolke than he had to Eihl. When he met Gioia and Kniffin about 1:30 a.m. on his way to Ledger's Liquors, Thomas told Wolke, they asked him for some marijuana and he shared some with them, smoking it in his corncob pipe. He said he also drank beer with them. Thomas claimed he must have lost his pipe at that time. Thomas said he got his laundry from his car about sunrise. Asked if he owned any guns, Thomas said he had a Remington .44 magnum bolt-action rifle without a clip. When Wolke asked to see the rifle, Thomas told him it had been stolen late Thursday afternoon or Thursday evening (August 15). Thomas showed Wolke a lidded Tupperware container and claimed that the 10 or 11 bullets he kept in it were missing. Wolke asked if Thomas had made a police report or told anyone the gun had been stolen; Thomas said no. Thomas said he had last fired it on Thursday evening. On August 20, Thomas again spoke with Wolke and gave another account of the events of August 15-16, more detailed than his earlier statements and inconsistent with them in some respects. He told Wolke that just before dark on August 15, he had gone with David Bergman and Melody Medlin, Thomas Medlin's wife, to liquor stores on University Avenue. Thomas purchased ale. After returning to Rainbow Village, Thomas ran into Tracy Scarborough. He and Scarborough drank ale and smoked marijuana in Thomas's car. About 9:00 p.m., Scarborough fell asleep. Thomas joined Gioia, Jim Prew, Chris Campbell, and Paul Harter at Prew's van and drank with them. They were drinking whiskey, and Thomas returned to his car to get a pint bottle of Wild Turkey. Later in the evening, Campbell asked for a ride to Richmond, so they all got in the van and drove out to Richmond. At the San Pablo Dam Road exit, they went to a convenience store and bought burritos and beer. It was 12:59 a.m. They dropped Campbell off and returned to Rainbow Village, stopping to give Kniffin a ride from University Avenue. They continued to drink together for 15 or 20 minutes. Then Prew said he was tired, Gioia and Kniffin left, and Thomas went back to his car to drop off his pint of Wild Turkey. At that time, Thomas decided to go to Ledger's Liquors to buy some beer. Walking out past the village, he saw Vivian Cercy's car pointed north along the roadside. He also saw Gioia and Kniffin near the concrete docks. Kniffin called him over to ask him if he had any matches. Thomas gave them some wooden matches in a leather-like pouch with a beaded design of deer mating, which he called Peruvian love beads. They asked him if he had any marijuana. Thomas said he did and took out a wooden pipe in which they all smoked the marijuana. They also drank beer. Thomas told Wolke he also had a corncob pipe with a broken stem and that he must have left it behind for Gioia and Kniffin or else lost it where they were. While Thomas was with them, Vincent Johnson passed by on his way to Rainbow Village and said hello. Thomas spent a total of less than 10 minutes with Gioia and Kniffin before proceeding to Ledger's Liquors. Finding the store closed, he returned to the village. He got his jacket and $20 from his car. He then walked to various locations in an unsuccessful effort to purchase marijuana. He did not see Gioia and Kniffin on his way. He then returned to Rainbow Village, removed his jacket, got his laundry from his car, and walked to the laundromat at University and San Pablo Avenues. It was about daybreak when he got his laundry out of the car. Asked what time it was when he got to the laundromat and began to do his laundry, Thomas said it was after 6:00 a.m. Wolke asked if he knew when the laundromat opened; defendant said it opened at 7:00 a.m., so he must have done his laundry after 7:00 a.m. While doing his laundry, Thomas went across the street to a bakery and got some coffee. Thomas said he ran into a man named Claude Roseman, who lived at the UC Hotel, and he lent Roseman a dollar. On his return to Rainbow Village, Thomas stopped by the landfill office and noticed several people there. He then went to his car, opened the rear door, and noticed that his rifle was missing from its case, along with a white Tupperware container that had approximately eleven .44 magnum shells in it. [15] Wolke told Thomas that the police could not figure out the motive for the murders. Thomas said he could think of plenty of reasons why somebody would want to murder the victims. Wolke said, Why don't you tell me one? Thomas paused and then said he could not think of any at the time. Wolke asked if he would be willing to take a polygraph test regarding his missing rifle. Thomas said he would have to think about it and get some legal advice.