Brighton – The man charged with killing Aurora police Detective Mike Thomas, who was in plain clothes and driving his personal car when he was shot, may have known that Thomas was a police officer, according to testimony Thursday.
During a preliminary hearing in Adams County District Court, lead police Detective Robert Wilson said Brian Washington, 27, made a call from jail to his mother two days after the Sept. 20 shooting, telling her that he shot Thomas because “they,” meaning police, were following him because of a custody issue with his children.
“He had a feeling, yes, that he was a police officer,” Wilson testified, “because they were following and harassing him.”
However, Wilson also said that during the investigation, police could not find any evidence that linked the two together.
Thomas had just finished a training session Sept. 20 and was running errands when he was shot and killed in his car while at East Montview Boulevard and Peoria Street.
Adams County Deputy Catalin Pavel testified that Washington told an inmate during a van transfer from court in October that he knew Thomas was a cop.
“‘Yes, I knew him from the streets. But I was also told not to say that I knew he was a cop,”‘ Pavel said Washington told inmate Dennis Cochell.
But defense attorney Melissa Garscin said that Cochell was merely a “jailhouse snitch” and that he had a criminal record including several felony drug charges and an arrest for false reporting to authorities.
District Judge C. Vincent Phelps agreed there was sufficient evidence to continue toward trial, noting that at preliminary hearings, the burden of proof is lower than that of a trial.
With that in mind, the judge said he could “clearly see that Mr. Washington believed that the gentleman in the car who was following him was a police officer.”
That will allow one of the eight charges, first-degree murder of a police officer, to continue, as well as another first- degree murder charge for killing Thomas and an attempted- murder charge in connection with a confrontation Washington had with an officer who stopped to help.
After the hearing, Thomas’ brother, Jim Thomas, was elated with the ruling. The murder charge against a police officer will make it easier for a jury to sentence Washington to the death penalty should he be convicted, his brother said.
“The death penalty, that’s what we want,” Jim Thomas said. “Maybe it will make people think twice when they take the life of a police officer.”
According to testimony, Washington made erratic statements to police while in custody in the hours after the shooting. Washington said, “I am a prophet” and “Now my head is clear” to police, Aurora Detective Gretchen Fronapfel testified.
Washington also told authorities that he was eager to go home to see his children and that he “had to do it,” that he “had to show the white man.”
Several of Thomas’ family members attended the hearing, some wearing sweat shirts that had a picture of Mike Thomas emblazoned on it.
Jim Thomas said the family is coping the best it can, given the “great loss of my brother.”
Staff writer Carlos Illescas can be reached at 303-954-1175 or cillescas@denverpost.com.
