FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — A man who is accused of killing a woman at the 7Hills Homeless Center on Feb. 17 has pled not guilty to second-degree murder, according to Washington County Prosecuting Attorney Matt Durrett.
On March 11, Michael Thomas, 33, also pleaded not guilty to the possession of drug paraphernalia.
Officials responded to a 911 call of a woman "inside the warming tent on the east side of the building" who was unresponsive on Feb. 17 around 8:10 p.m., the Fayetteville Police Department (FPD) said.
When officials arrived, they found the woman with no pulse, according to FPD. Emergency crews performed CPR on the woman, but she was declared dead moments later. Officials said they immediately began an investigation and called the facilities manager to the scene to look at security camera footage. Police identified the woman as 37-year-old Sonia Corbin.
The security footage showed the woman arguing with a man inside the tent. The manager identified the suspect as Thomas, whom the detective also recognized "from previous police incidents," FPD said.
Officials said the footage showed the argument quickly escalating as the woman tried to "push past" Thomas to leave the tent. Officials said the footage showed Thomas grabbing the woman into a chokehold and pulling her to the ground.
Police said the woman tried to escape the chokehold as she "violently kicked her feet and slowly stopped kicking," before becoming "motionless."
Officials said about five minutes later Thomas stood up and "briefly stood over the female's body," and started smoking from a pipe that he pulled from a nearby jacket. Thomas then stood over the woman's body, "put his hands together and bowed," before covering her in a blanket, police said.
FPD said Thomas stayed at the scene for about three hours with the woman still not moving. Moments after he left, FPD said someone came into the tent and noticed the woman not moving and called 911.
"Michael's actions knowingly caused the death of another person under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life," FPD said in a release.
On the morning of Feb. 18, officials said they located and arrested Thomas at a campsite just north of Town Branch Trail. Officials said he was wearing the same jacket seen in the security footage and a pipe on him with what later tested positive for meth.
When interviewed, Thomas admitted to police that he placed the woman in a chokehold to "citizen's arrest her" because she was acting erratically. Thomas also said when he noticed she didn't have a pulse, he was unable to call 911 "because he didn't have a phone."
Thomas is scheduled to appear in court on October 21, 2024.
February report:
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