Hilbert Pineil Thomas, a 39-year-old Garden Grove resident accused of killing a mobile-home salesman and his secretary in Stanton in 2009, will face the death penalty, Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas
announced today.
Thomas is being held without bail on two felony
counts of special-circumstances murder for multiple murders, murder
during the commission of robbery, murder during the commission of
burglary, felony second-degree
robbery, felony second-degree commercial burglary and the unlawful taking of a
vehicle. He has a Feb. 4 pretrial hearing date in Santa Ana.
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The OCDA statement on Rackauckas' decision follows:
Jan. 10, 2011
OCDA ANNOUNCES DECISION TO SEEK DEATH PENALTY AGAINST MAN FOR
EXECUTION-STYLE DOUBLE MURDER OF STANTON SALES ASSOCIATE AND SECRETARY
SANTA ANA – Orange County District Attorney (OCDA) Tony Rackauckas
announced today he will seek the death penalty against a man for the
double murder of a Stanton sales associate and his longtime secretary.
Hilbert Pineil Thomas, 39, Garden Grove, is charged with two felony
counts of special-circumstances murder for multiple murders, murder
during the commission of robbery and murder during the commission of
burglary. He is also charged with one felony count each of second-degree
robbery, second-degree commercial burglary and the unlawful taking of a
vehicle. Thomas is being held without bail and is scheduled for a
pretrial hearing Feb. 4, 2011, at 9 a.m. in Department C-40, Central
Justice Center, Santa Ana.Before the death penalty is pursued by the OCDA, a special-circumstances
committee will meet and confer. The committee consists of the district attorney, the senior assistant and the assistant in charge of the
Homicide Unit, and other prosecutors experienced in capital cases. The
committee will discuss the defendant's record, the nature of the crime
and the vulnerability of the victim, among other factors. The committee
also considers mitigating circumstances from the defense attorney. The
final decision to pursue the death penalty rests on the district attorney.The decision to seek the death penalty against Thomas was reached based
on the seriousness and gravity of the execution-style double murder, the
motivation for the crime, and the background of both the defendant and
the innocent victims.On the morning of Feb. 2, 2009, Thomas is accused of walking past Golden
Sun Homes business office on Beach Boulevard in Stanton while taking
his niece to school. He is accused of living approximately 500 feet from
the business. The defendant is accused of deciding to murder the
employees inside in order to steal a car belonging to a secretary for
the business.After dropping off his niece, Thomas is accused of walking into Golden
Sun Homes and shooting and murdering Matthew Francis Scott, a sales
associate and son of the business co-owner. He is accused of shooting
and murdering longtime secretary Elizabeth Ann Palmer execution-style
in the head. Both victims were shot execution-style in the head. Thomas
is accused of then stealing Palmer's Lexus sedan and fleeing the scene.On Oct. 13, 2009, Thomas was served with a protective order by the
Orange County Sheriff's Department (OCSD) barring him from having
contact with his ex-wife after having set her car on fire in Los Angeles
County. As a term of the protective order, Thomas was ordered to turn
over all of his firearms to law enforcement. On Oct. 24, 2009, after
months of searching for the vehicle, police found the stolen Lexus
parked at the El Dorado Inn on Lincoln Avenue in Anaheim.On Oct. 26, 2009, Thomas is accused of turning over a firearm to the Los
Angeles Sheriff's Department (LASD) to comply with the protective
order. On Oct. 28, 2009, OCSD determined that Thomas had been in
possession of the stolen vehicle and began investigating him for the
murders of Scott and Palmer. An investigation into Thomas' background
showed that he had recently been contacted by LASD. Thomas is accused of
having turned over the firearm used in the Orange County murders to
LASD.Senior Deputy District Attorney Ebrahim Baytieh of the Homicide Unit is prosecuting this case.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.