By Cole Waterman
SAGINAW, MI — Before he was gunned down in an apparent gangland-style killing, Demarlon C. Thomas was at different points a football star and a drug dealer.
He attended college on an athletic scholarship. A few years later, he was staring down two decades in a federal prison for selling fewer than 15 grams of crack cocaine.
“My long term goals are to get a job, start a family, and do for my family,” he wrote before learning how much prison time his dealing had gotten him. “Also, just to live my life to the realest I can when I get out.”
President Barack Obama gave Thomas a second chance at life by commuting his sentence just before Thanksgiving 2016. Thomas had little time to seize on this opportunity.
On the night of Monday, Jan. 23, Thomas was shot numerous times when two gunmen entered a federal halfway house in Saginaw. One man corralled 23 other people while his cohort killed Thomas, police have said.
Police described the slaying as an “execution.”
Carla Robinson said she grew up with Thomas and remained in contact with him throughout his imprisonment.
“He was his mom’s only child,” Robinson said. “Since he’s been home, all he’s been trying to do is do right. He’s been trying to find a job. He wasn’t a troublemaker, even with his convictions, he was just trying to make a way of living to try to take care of his mom.”
Though he wasn’t employed at the time of his death, Thomas had a couple of jobs lined up, Robinson said.
Robinson did not get a chance to see Thomas since he left prison, as she currently lives out of state. Still, they would communicate daily via text messaging, she said.
“He was just happy to be free and have a second chance at life,” she said. “I actually talked to him even more before he came home. He was just focused on coming home. Before he even knew about the situation with Obama, he remained, ‘I’ll be home one day.'”
Thomas referred to himself as “blessed” on his return home, Robinson said.
“Once he came home, he reached out to everybody,” she said. “Every morning, he had a group of people that he’d text ‘good morning.'”
Robinson took issue with media depictions of Thomas as a former gang member.
“He’s not the person that the media is painting a picture of,” she said. “He’s not a hardcore gangbanger criminal. He was a caring person. He can’t help the environment he was raised in. That wasn’t his choice.”
Robinson said she’s devastated, confused and angry over Thomas’ killing.
“How could this happen in a facility that’s supposed to be secure?” she asked.
Jacinca Haley, another friend who knew Thomas since middle school, added that Thomas was perpetually positive.
“He was very cheerful, playful, and never mean,” she said. She said she last saw him a week ago, when he visited with her and her grandmother.
“You could tell he really missed everybody,” Haley said. “He woke up every morning telling everyone ‘good morning’ just to check on you. The last text message I got from him (on Jan. 18), all he said was ‘I’m just checking on you.'”
Thomas’ criminal history
In October 2007, Thomas was one of 17 men federally indicted on a combined 29 counts related to the sale of crack cocaine and to firearm possession. The indictment stated Stanley T. Brazil Jr. would acquire crack and powder cocaine and distribute it to Thomas and the other defendants. They would then sell the product in the South Side, or Sunny Side, of Saginaw, the document states.
The indictments resulted from a three-year investigation dubbed “Operation Sunset.” It involved agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the FBI, Michigan State Police troopers, Saginaw police, Saginaw County sheriff’s deputies and U.S. Marshals.
Brazil was considered the leader of the Sunny Side Gang. A jury in September 2008 found Brazil guilty of two counts of distributing 50 grams or more of cocaine base. He was subsequently sentenced to 380 months in prison.
The probe resulted in 29 federal convictions and 10 state convictions.
Thomas in August 2008 pleaded guilty to distribution of 5 grams or more of cocaine base. In his plea agreement, Thomas stipulated that on June 19, 2007, he knowingly distributed 7.2 grams of crack cocaine to a confidential informant in or around Saginaw. He was responsible for the distribution of 14.88 grams of crack in total, court records show.
Thomas did not testify against his codefendants.
The plea agreement goes on to describe Thomas as “a career criminal.” He was twice convicted in Saginaw County Circuit Court of delivering less than 50 grams of cocaine base.
In 2002, Thomas received six months probation after he pleaded guilty to using cocaine. He violated his probation by continuing to use illicit drugs. His violation prompted his probation to be extended until March 2004.
In February 2005, he was arrested again after selling 0.23 grams of crack to an undercover officer. In the jail, staff searched him and found 10 to 15 more crack rocks.
After pleading guilty to that charge, he received a 36-month probation sentence. While on bond in April 2005, Thomas was present when another man sold $20 in crack to an undercover officer.
“That conduct resulted in both a new felony conviction for drug trafficking for Thomas and a violation of his earlier sentence of probation,” court records state. “Despite the fact that he was already on probation, and perhaps in recognition of Thomas’s youth, the court again extended considerable leniency to Thomas, imposing a sentence of 36 months on probation for the new drug trafficking conviction. Not only did Thomas violate his probationary sentence by failing to report to his state probation officer, but more important, he engaged in the criminal conduct that gave rise to his current federal case. That conduct included engaging in a series of crack cocaine transactions with an informant in June and July of 2007, selling the informant 3.48 grams, 7.02 grams, and 4.2 grams of crack cocaine. During each transaction the defendant had additional quantities of crack cocaine available for sale, or stated that he had recently sold substantial quantities of crack cocaine.”
Thomas’ sentencing guidelines ranged from 262 to 327 months. He argued the guidelines were inappropriate, in that he hadn’t been incarcerated before.
In her sentencing memorandum, defense attorney — and current Tuscola County Chief Circuit Judge — Amy Grace Gierhart wrote that Thomas was raised by his maternal grandmother. He graduated from Saginaw High School in 2003, where he played football and received numerous accolades. He attended Minnesota West Community College on a football scholarship.
“Unfortunately, Mr. Thomas’ adjustment to college was tenuous and he returned to Saginaw after one school year,” Gierhart wrote. “Mr. Thomas drifted into a life whereby he hung out with his friends, used some alcohol, and increasingly used larger amounts of marijuana.”
Thomas resided with his grandmother and was minimally employed.
Gierhart argued it was a travesty that Thomas, who never served time, was facing more than 21 years in a federal institution.
“While Mr. Thomas’ slate is not clean, it is neither crowded,” she wrote. “Moreover, certainly Mr. Thomas is in no way a ‘major player’ and is at best, a street-level dealer.”
She added that Thomas was “friendly, courteous, and outgoing. He is in good health. He seems to be of average to above-average intelligence.”
Attached to Gierhart’s memorandum was a letter written by Donald Durrett, at the time Saginaw High School’s principal and football coach.
“Demarlon Thomas is a very good person and was an outstanding football player at Saginaw High School and at Minnesota Junior College,” Durrett wrote. “He was an asset in winning championships. Demarlon’s extracurricular activities stressed confidence and leadership responsibilities. He is an enthusiastic person and he demonstrates genuine pride in all of the above.
“Demarlon is a hard worker and continuously strives for excellence in all of his endeavors,” Durrett’s letter continued. “He works well with others and is always willing to help any of his peers who need assistance. It has been a pleasure to know Demarlon Thomas, both as a person and as an athlete.”
Thomas himself wrote answers to questions posed to him by Gierhart. He pleaded for leniency from the judge.
“I think giving me leniency would be nice because of the time I am looking at is not right for only pleading guilty to 7.2 grams of crack,” he wrote. “The time I am looking at is for people who kill people, so some leniency should be in my favor.”
He wrote that growing up around negative influences caused him to make poor decisions.
“I have allowed myself to become part of the wrong crowd, ultimately doing many things I regret,” he wrote. “I take responsibility for what I have done but I ask the courts for a chance to prove myself and to not shatter my future for this mistake.”
At the same time, he acknowledged a positive effect his time in jail had lent him.
“I am a better person now because being in jail you think about so much that the old lifestyle I was living was not right,” he wrote. “Also, jail will make you a better person because you is away from the people who love you and your family. That’s what hurt so much.”
Prosecutors opposed leniency for Thomas.
“Thomas characterizes his prior sentences as travesties of justice in that they were not more stringent,” Acting U.S. Attorney Terrence Berg wrote in a sentencing memorandum. “It is the height of irony that Thomas, who has blatantly ignored the orders of every court that has had jurisdiction over him, now seeks to blame those courts for not punishing him adequately. Thomas made the conscious decision to flaunt the orders of the court and continue in the trafficking of crack cocaine. He has abused the leniency of the court. Nor is the lack of prior incarceration relevant to the court’s analysis. Congress has mandated that career offenders be sentenced at or near the statutory maximum, regardless of their prior incarceration history.”
U.S. District Judge Thomas L. Ludington on Nov. 25, 2008, sentenced Thomas to 230 months — or 19.16 years — in federal prison. He was to be on supervised release for an additional eight years.
Thomas appealed his sentence to the U.S. Court of Appeals, arguing his sentence was unreasonable given his minor role as a street-level dealer. The appellate court in August 2010 found Ludington did not abuse his discretion in issuing the sentence.
On Nov. 22, 2016, President Obama issued an executive order of clemency, selecting Thomas as one of 79 beneficiaries. The order stated the remainder of Thomas’ sentence was to expire on March 22, 2017.
At the time, Thomas was imprisoned at the Elkton Federal Correctional Institution in Lisbon, Ohio. Officials there confirmed Thomas arrived at Bannum Place, a federal halfway house at 2209 Norman St. on Dec. 13. He was to be held there until March 22.
The Michigan State Police Major Crimes Unit is leading the investigation into Thomas’ slaying.
Anyone with information about the slaying is asked to call Michigan State Police Detective Sgt. Jim Bush directly at 231-250-9471, or CrimeStoppers at 1-800-422-5245.
Those who call do not have to give their name.
— Reporter Michael Kransz contributed to this report.