Witness recounts beating, slaying
A Cleveland, Ohio, man testified Tuesday that Charles Wilson, also of Cleveland, was one of three men who beat him and strangled Eric Corwin Thomas in a South Union Township housing project in March 2004. Corwin died in the attack and Wilson is on trial for his death. A jury was selected in Fayette County Court in the morning and after opening arguments, testimony started in the afternoon.
Wilson, 34, also faces charges aggravated assault, robbery and three counts of conspiracy that were filed by state police. He is the last of four people involved in Thomas’s death to face charges.
Deshon T. Garrison, 19, also of Cleveland, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and was sentenced last November to serve 10 to 20 years in prison.
He is scheduled to testify possibly today along with Chambrale Parham of Pittsburgh, who was given immunity in exchange for her testimony. Parham, 21, had faced three counts of conspiracy.
The fourth person was Timothy Atwater of Cleveland. He shot and killed himself on March 31 last year in a Cleveland apartment building as police were moving in to arrest him. Atwater was 25 years old.
Thomas, a Cleveland native, was 30 when his body was found in a Tuskeegee Terrace apartment on March 24.
Terrance Lett testified that he found Thomas’s body after he regained consciousness from a beating that Wilson, Garrison and Atwater gave him.
Under questioning from First Administrative Assistant District Attorney Mark F. Morrison, Lett, 33, said he has lived in Uniontown since 1995, but was friends with Thomas for about 20 years and attended school with him in Cleveland.
He said he met Atwater the year he moved to Uniontown and met Wilson and Garrison through Atwater.
Lett said he was at his home babysitting Thomas’s 2-year-old daughter while he was watching his own daughter in the morning of the day in question.
While he was watching the children, Wilson, Garrison, Atwater and Parham stopped by and stayed about 30 minutes, he said.
When Thomas returned for his daughter, Lett said he dropped them off and kept a car Thomas had rented.
In the afternoon, Lett said Atwater called on his cell phone from the Tuskeegee apartment where Thomas was staying and asked him to come over.
Lett said he waited about an hour and Atwater called again, this time using Thomas’s cell phone.
After arriving about 20 minutes later, Lett said he called both cell phones from outside the apartment, but got no answer so he knocked on the kitchen door.
He said he didn’t see who opened the door or who closed it behind him after he entered, but he saw Atwater in the kitchen.
Then Garrison, who had a handgun, and another person attacked him and knocked him to the floor, Lett said.
He said Wilson was tying up his hands and feet while Atwater and Garrison were going through his pockets.
They flipped him on to his stomach, stuffed something in his mouth and blindfolded him, he said.
“There’s no doubt, he was there,” Lett said about Wilson.
He said they took his cell phone and about $200, and he never saw Thomas.
“I was hit as soon as I turned around. I was being attacked by two guys,” Lett said, responding to a question from President Judge Conrad B. Capuzzi.
He said he was hit with guns, punched and kicked until he blacked out. Lett said they hit him less frequently after he was bound and blindfolded. He said Atwater and Garrison had guns, but all three men beat him and Parham was also there.
Lett said the beating took place in the kitchen and although he doesn’t remember being moved, he woke up in a closet next to the furnace. He said the furnace room is off of the kitchen.
When he woke up, he said he was covered with garbage and clothes. He said he wiggled his hands free, removed the blindfold, untied his feet and felt around for the door.
He said he got out of the furnace room with a sore back, ribs head and arms, and his head and mouth were bleeding.
Lett said he looked for Thomas, but first found his daughter sleeping in a second-floor bedroom.
When he went back downstairs, he said he noticed that a couch had been pushed up against a closet door in the living room.
He said he found Thomas on his knees inside the closet with his hands tied together behind his back. He said he could not recall whether Thomas’s feet were bound.
Lett said he didn’t see any wounds on Thomas, but he could not wake him up.
He said pulled Thomas out of the closet, but he was not responsive.
Lett said he went to a neighbor’s house and called his sister in law and 911.
Under cross-examination from Wilson’s attorney Dianne H. Zerega, Lett said the first blow he felt when he entered the apartment came from Garrison, who hit him with a gun.
He said Parham came downstairs while he was being beaten.
The first person to testify was state Trooper Mark Patten, who said he found one injured man on the porch and another man laying face down with about a third of his body in an open closet.
Uniontown Firemen’s paramedic Fred Wooley said he and his partner found one man on the porch with a cut on his forehead and a dead man inside with his hands tied behind his back.
His partner Todd Brothers testified that the dead man’s hands and feet were bound with “zip ties.”
The trial resumes this morning before a jury of seven women and seven men, including two alternates.
By Steve Ferris
Herald-Standard
A Common Pleas Court jury was empanelled Tuesday and testimony began in the trial of Charles Wilson, of Cleveland, Ohio, who has been charged with homicide in the March 2004 strangulation death of Eric Corwin “ET” Thomas in a South Union Township housing project.
Wilson, 34, also faces charges aggravated assault, robbery and three counts of conspiracy that were filed by state police, and is the last of four people involved in Thomas’s death to face charges.
Deshon T. Garrison, 19, also of Cleveland pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and was sentenced last November to serve 10 to 20 years in prison.
He is scheduled to testify possibly today along with Chambrale Parham of Pittsburgh, who was given immunity in exchange for her testimony. Parham, 21, had faced three counts of conspiracy.
The fourth person was Timothy Atwater, of Cleveland. He shot and killed himself on March 31 last year in a Cleveland apartment building as police were moving in to arrest him. Atwater was 25 years old.
Thomas, a Cleveland native, was 30 when his body was found in a Tuskeegee Terrace apartment on March 24.
Terrance Lett, also a Cleveland native, testified that he found Thomas’s body after he regained consciousness from a beating that Wilson, Garrison and Atwater gave him.
Under questioning from First Administrative Assistant District Attorney Mark F. Morrison, Lett, 33, said he has lived in Uniontown since 1995, but was friends with Thomas for about 20 years and attended school with him in Cleveland.
He said he met Atwater the year he moved to Uniontown and met Wilson and Garrison through Atwater.
Lett said he was at his home babysitting Thomas’s 2-year-old daughter while he was watching his own daughter in the morning of the day in question.
While he was watching the children, Wilson, Garrison, Atwater and Parham stopped by and stayed about 30 minutes, he said.
When Thomas returned for his daughter, Lett said he dropped them off and kept a car Thomas had rented.
In the afternoon, Lett said Atwater called on his cell phone from the Tuskeegee apartment where Thomas was staying and asked him to come over.
Lett said he waited about an hour and Atwater called again, this time using Thomas’s cell phone.
After arriving about 20 minutes later, Lett said he called both cell phones from outside the apartment, but got no answer so he knocked on the kitchen door.
He said he didn’t see who opened the door or who closed it behind him after he entered, but he saw Atwater in the kitchen.
Then Garrison, who had a handgun, and another person attacked him and knocked him to the floor, Lett said.
He said Wilson was tying up his hands and feet while Atwater and Garrison were going through his pockets.
They flipped him on to his stomach, stuffed something in his mouth and blindfolded him, he said.
“There’s no doubt, he was there,” Lett said about Wilson.
He said they took his cell phone and about $200, and he never saw Thomas.
“I was hit as soon as I turned around. I was being attacked by two guys,” Lett said, responding to a question from President Judge Conrad B. Capuzzi.
He said he was hit with guns, punched and kicked until he blacked out. Lett said they hit him less frequently after he was bound and blindfolded. He said Atwater and Garrison had guns, but all three men beat him and Parham was also there.
Lett said the beating took place in the kitchen and although he doesn’t remember being moved, he woke up in a closet next to the furnace. He said the furnace room is off of the kitchen.
When he woke up, he said he was covered with garbage and clothes. He said he wiggled his hands free, removed the blindfold, untied his feet and felt around for the door.
He said he got out of the furnace room with a sore back, ribs head and arms, and his head and mouth were bleeding.
Lett said he looked for Thomas, but first found his daughter sleeping in a second-floor bedroom.
When he went back downstairs, he said he noticed that a couch had been pushed up against a closet door in the living room.
He said he found Thomas on his knees inside the closet with his hands tied together behind his back. He said he could not recall whether Thomas’s feet were bound.
Lett said he didn’t see any wounds on Thomas, but he could not wake him up.
He said pulled Thomas out of the closet, but he was not responsive.
Lett said he went to a neighbor’s house and called his sister in law and 911.
Under cross-examination from Wilson’s attorney Dianne H. Zerega, Lett said the first blow he felt when he entered the apartment came from Garrison, who hit him with a gun.
He said Parham came downstairs while he was being beaten.
The first person to testify was state Trooper Mark Patten, who said he found one injured man on the porch and another man laying face down with about a third of his body in an open closet.
Uniontown Firemen’s paramedic Fred Wooley said he and his partner found one man on the porch with a cut on his forehead and a dead man inside with his hands tied behind his back.
His partner Todd Brothers testified that the dead man’s hands and feet were bound with “zip ties.”
The trial resumes this morning before a jury of seven women and seven men, including two alternates.