Jury finds Thomas guilty of murdering girlfriend

PALMER — Andrew Victor Thomas appeared distraught after a jury of four women and eight men declared him guilty of first-degree murder Tuesday afternoon.

After the jury left and while Superior Court Judge Eric Smith was searching for a date to hold a sentencing hearing, Thomas demanded he “do it now.”

“I can’t do it now, sir,” Smith replied before setting a date of June 22.

After a few profanity-laced comments to his attorney, Lyle Stohler, Thomas turned to Assistant District Attorney Trina Sears, who had prosecuted the case against him.

“I still won,” he said, mysteriously. “You hear that Trina? I still won.”

Thomas was charged with killing his girlfriend, Susanna Braden, who had moved to the Valley in the summer of 2010 to try and escape their troubled Fairbanks-area relationship.

His trial in Palmer lasted two weeks. The charge of first-degree murder on which he was convicted carries a possible sentence of up to 99 years in prison.

Sears told jurors that Thomas had stabbed Braden repeatedly, bending one knife and breaking another, before grabbing a sledgehammer and beating Braden’s head with it.

She described Thomas as controlling and said he resorted to murder after it became apparent he could no longer control Braden. He had a history of abusing her. While he was serving time for beating Braden, she moved to the Valley to escape him.

Stohler had argued that his client might have been guilty of a lesser charge of assault, instead of murder. Stohler used what’s called a “heat of passion defense” to say that Thomas lacked the intent critical to finding a person guilty of murder. He argued that Thomas had found Braden in a relationship with another man and had lost his mind.

When Alaska State Troopers arrived at the Mile 49 cabins that early August day they weren’t sure initially what had happened. The only witness to the killing had fled.

Thomas was found at the scene, splattered in blood. Sears said he took the time to grab a beer and light a cigarette before he told neighbors what he had done. Alone in a squad car waiting for troopers to find Braden, he said a few things to himself that were captured on a police audio recorder.

“He says about Miss Braden, ‘bye bitch,’” Sears told the jury in her opening statements two weeks ago. “That’s what he says about her. And then he says, ‘I’ll go to jail correctly.’ He says, ‘I smashed her.’”

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