99 years for beating death

PALMER — Maybe he didn’t remember doing it. Maybe they were both drunk.

But because of the brutality of his crimes and the history he had of abusing Susanna Braden prior to her murder, Andrew Victor Thomas will spend the rest of his life in prison. He was convicted in March of murder for stabbing her with a pair of knives, then beating her to death with a sledgehammer.

Superior Court Judge Eric Smith handed Thomas a 99-year sentence Monday afternoon.

“This is certainly a clear case where alcohol has destroyed two lives, one literally and one figuratively,” Smith said.

Thomas was arrested in 2010. Troopers found him at the cabins at Mile 49, Parks Highway, covered in Braden’s blood.

Prosecutor Trina Sears asked for a 99-year term — the maximum possible.

“Mr. Thomas ended her life in really the most horrific way possible,” Sears said.

But while the court proceedings until this point had been mostly about Thomas and what he’d done, Sears said a big part of sentencing had to be about Braden. She said some testimony at trial indicated Braden was a happy person who loved her children and was always smiling.

“I wish we knew more about Suzie,” Sears said. “We know a little bit about her, but due to Mr. Thomas’ actions we will never know more.”

And, she pointed out, the case was a very rare one in that just prior to Braden’s murder Thomas had been released from prison after serving a sentence for assaulting her.

“Mr. Thomas’ prospects for rehabilitation are minimal at best and very, very bleak,” Sears said.

Thomas’ attorney, Lyle Stohler, said his client didn’t have a history of felony offenses and didn’t plan or premeditate Braden’s murder.

The knives and the sledgehammer were in the cabin when he got there.

“When people plan on killing someone they bring a weapon,” Stohler said.

And, he pointed out, when troopers gave him a breathalyzer after the fact he blew a .253. The legal limit for driving is .08.

“There isn’t a whole lot of thought going on there,” Stohler said.

When it was his turn to talk, Thomas told the court that he woke up in jail and asked what he’d done to get there. He has no memory of killing Braden.

“Not a day goes by that I don’t wake up and wonder what really happened,” he said. “Deep down in my heart I really don’t think I did this.”

He said both he and Braden were alcoholics. They were together for a long time in Fairbanks before they decided to move to the Mat-Su Valley to start over.

“I loved Suzie with all my heart and I loved her kids,” he said. “Alcohol is a demon. It’s a demon that I could never control.”

Smith agreed that alcohol played a role and even said he found credible Thomas’ claim not to remember the murder.

“I can see that Mr. Thomas snapped. But Mr. Thomas had been snapping for a very long time. It didn’t take that much for Mr. Thomas to attack Miss Braden,” Smith said.

And when Thomas came to the cabin to take her away and she refused, he beat her to death. Smith said that he has found it to be true that sometimes the most dangerous people in a courtroom are the ones charged with low-level, misdemeanor fourth-degree assault.

“They are able to calibrate their violence,” Smith said, adding they use violence as Thomas did, to control people.

Society, Smith said, needs protection from people like that.

“Mr. Thomas is violent when he’s drunk and he’s drunk a lot,” Smith said in handing down the 99-year term.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.