SALON

Tuesday, Nov 13, 2012 9:30 PM UTC

Plea deal falls through in East Coast rapes case

By

Topics: From the Wires,

Plea deal falls through in East Coast rapes caseThis undated handout photo provided by the Prince William County, Va., Police Department shows Aaron Thomas. Thomas, a Connecticut man who authorities blame for a series of rapes and assaults of women along the East Coast is expected to plead guilty for the first time to one of those attacks. (AP Photo/Prince William County, Va. Police Department)(Credit: AP)

MANASSAS, Va. (AP) — A plea deal for a Connecticut man accused of a series of rapes along the East Coast fell through Tuesday after the defendant told a judge he wasn’t sure he knew what he was doing.

A plea hearing had been scheduled in Prince William County for Aaron Thomas, who is charged with abducting three teenage trick-or-treaters in 2009 in Virginia and raping two of them. But the deal was called off when Thomas, of New Haven, Conn., balked at the deal in open court.

At the outset of the hearing, Thomas told the judge in a barely audible voice that he wasn’t sure what was right and what was wrong.

“I’m not sure I know what I’m doing,” Thomas said.

The assaults were the last of 17 that authorities attributed to Thomas, who was linked through DNA to assaults and rapes on women as far back as 1997 in Virginia, Maryland, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Had Thomas pleaded guilty, it would have been the first time he had been convicted for any of those assaults.

A similar plea hearing is scheduled for Nov. 30 in Loudoun County, where Thomas is accused of raping a Leesburg woman in 2001. Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Plowman said that hearing is still scheduled, but it “remains to be seen” if he will actually enter a plea.

Thomas was arrested in Connecticut in March 2011. At a preliminary hearing, police testified that Thomas confessed shortly after he was arrested.

His lawyers initially pursued an insanity defense. They said in court motions that he spent time at a psychiatric facility in his youth, and that he complained of an alternate personality named Erwin. He also behaved erratically in jail, cutting himself and refusing to talk to lawyers.

But a court-appointed evaluator concluded that Thomas was faking his symptoms, and the defense lawyers dropped plans for an insanity defense shortly before scheduling Tuesday’s hearing.

Thomas’ lawyers declined comment to reporters after the hearing.

Prince William Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul Ebert said Thomas had signed a plea agreement admitting guilt in two rapes and three abductions in the Halloween attacks. Ebert had agreed to drop three lesser firearms charges as part of the deal. Thomas would have faced up to life in prison under the deal’s terms, with a judge determining the ultimate sentence.

Ebert said after the hearing that he had hoped the plea deal would go forward to spare the victims from testifying at trial, but he’s prepared to put on the case regardless.

In court, Thomas looked more alert than at previous hearings but kept his head down and his shoulders hunched forward.

Ebert said he was not surprised Thomas balked at the plea due to his odd behavior.

“He’s an unusual character,” Ebert said.

More Matthew Barakat.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Who is "Company Doe"? Corporations accused of wrongdoing win battle to keep identities secret
42 points43 points | 1 comment
vote
"Slave descendants seek equal rights from Cherokee Nation": long, detailed narrative of legal and historical complications in red-white-black relations
30 points31 points | 1 comment
vote
Who is "Company Doe"? Corporations accused of wrongdoing win battle to keep identities secret
6 points7 points | comment
vote
Steven Soderbergh's Liberace biopic shows the famously flamboyant entertainer as a person, not a stereotype
6 points7 points | comment
vote
Experts: Fox News spying scandal a game-changer - I think that crackdown is ideologically driven and I think it’s hard to come to a different conclusion given the vigor with which this justice department has gone after people. So I think it is about a method of control that is badly misplaced.
2 points3 points | 6 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations