Henrico man gets nearly 15 years in mother’s stabbing death

Gilbert L. "Duke" Thomas stabbed and cut his mother so viciously that the blade of the kitchen knife he used broke off at the handle and protruded from the left side of her neck.

But Thomas, then 22, dutifully placed a blanket over his dying mother, her arms and hands covered with defensive wounds, before wandering away in February last year from the Henrico County apartment they shared.

His mother had suffered more than 40 knife wounds.

Details of the grisly crime were presented yesterday in Henrico County Circuit Court, where Thomas pleaded guilty to second-degree murder as three of Eloise Thomas' four sisters sobbed quietly.

Thomas shook his head "No" when asked by the court if he had anything to say.

"He showed no remorse, no remorse for our sister," Regina Thomas said after the brief hearing. "We will never get over what she went through. Death can come early, death can come late, but death shouldn't come like this."

A plea agreement approved yesterday by Judge Daniel T. Balfour resulted in a 14-year, nine-month sentence for Thomas, who after the murder was diagnosed with severe mental illness.

Evidence in the case presented by Deputy Commonwealth's Attorneys Deana Malek and Michael Huberman showed that after the stabbing, Thomas returned to the apartment to retrieve a toothbrush and simple items he could sell. The next night, he returned to the apartment to sleep, the body of his 47-year-old mother in her nearby bedroom.

Thomas was arrested Feb. 14 while wandering near Pine Camp, a short distance from the Thomases' East Crenshaw Road apartment near Azalea Avenue.

Theodore Bruns, Thomas' lawyer, said conflicting psychiatric evidence about Thomas' ability to determine right from wrong at the time of the stabbing complicated any effort for Thomas to plead not guilty by reason of insanity.

Bruns urged the court to assure that Thomas will continue to receive mental-health care when he is in prison. Thomas underwent months of rehabilitation at Central State Hospital.

Thomas, according to evidence in the case, was troubled by delusions that his mother was trying to poison him and keep him from succeeding in life.

But Regina Thomas said the truth about her sister was precisely the opposite.

"She opened her arms to him like wings and showed him love," she said.

Contact Bill McKelway at (804) 649-6601 or .