EVANSVILLE — Prosecutors on Friday charged an Evansville man with the 2022 murder of 57-year-old Patrick White, reigniting a case that was previously dropped after a key witness failed to come forward.

The defendant, 35-year-old Michael Logan Thomas, was already being held in the Vanderburgh County jail in connection with a battery case when a judge issued an arrest warrant for him last week, a sheriff’s office official said.

At Thomas’ first hearing in Vanderburgh County Circuit Court, Judge Celia Pauli entered a preliminary not-guilty plea on Thomas’ behalf, according to the transcript of his case. The court appointed a public defender to serve as Thomas’ legal counsel.

The move to charge Thomas came after the judge Dismissed prosecutors’ initial case against Thomas in July 2023 When a woman identified by police as Thomas’ ex-girlfriend did not testify against him. Thomas allegedly confessed to the woman that he shot and killed White, according to court records.

As Thomas’ case approached a jury trial last year, the Vanderburgh County District Attorney’s Office wrote in a legal filing, “Multiple agencies spent countless days locating (Thomas’s former romantic partner) to ensure he would appear at trial.”

Despite the state’s efforts to delay the trial while authorities tried to track down the woman, the judge dismissed the felony murder charge against Thomas “without prejudice”; That meant prosecutors could charge him again at a later date.

It is unclear whether prosecutors took the woman’s statement in the intervening months. Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Diana Moers was out of the office Monday when a Courier & Press reporter requested comment. VCPO staff referred questions about the incident to a spokesperson, but he could not immediately be reached for comment.

Murder case started with missing investigation

The investigation naming Thomas as White’s killer traces back to July 7, 2022, when officers from the Evansville Police Department went to White’s apartment in the 1800 block of South Linwood Drive. to investigate his apparent disappearance..

The property manager of the apartment complex reportedly told officers that White had not paid his rent in more than a year. The manager said no one had seen him since April 2022, according to Thomas’ arrest affidavit.

Officers found White’s empty bathroom infested with hundreds of flies. There was no sign of a struggle and there was no immediate sign of White. That will change later in the investigation when investigators conduct a thorough search of the residence, according to court records.

Shortly after officers’ first visit to White’s apartment, he became a suspect in Thomas’s murder as detectives compiled clues and witness statements. Detective Jackie Lowe wrote in Thomas’ arrest affidavit that on July 8, 2022, a woman told police she overheard “a heated conversation about moving a body” between Thomas and another person.

“(Thomas) stated that he asked (the person) for help moving a body because he was concerned the body would start to smell, become noticeable, and he did not want to go to jail,” Lowe wrote.

White’s neighbor reportedly claimed that their son smelled bleach coming from White’s apartment, weeks after he last heard from his neighbor. A friend of White’s claimed that Thomas had been living with White at his home earlier in the year, but that Thomas often made excuses to explain why White was unavailable, according to Lowe.

Armed with a search warrant, crime scene detectives conducted an extensive search of White’s home and found his decomposing body wrapped in a blanket and twine. Using chemicals that caused blood to fluoresce, detectives discovered blood between the apartment’s tiled floor panels; This suggests that someone tried to clean up the crime scene after White’s murder.

The Vanderburgh County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed that the body was in fact White, and an autopsy determined that he died from a gunshot wound.

Thomas reportedly tried to name his girlfriend as White’s killer during police interview

On Aug. 12, 2022, officers executed another search warrant, this time at Thomas’ home on Rockford Drive, where he lived with his then-girlfriend, according to EPD. Police teams took both people to the police station for questioning.

During an interview, Thomas’ girlfriend reportedly described a conversation she had with Thomas on May 25, 2022, which followed a brief visit to White’s apartment and was already stinking by then.

“He asked (Thomas) again how he got the place, why it was so dirty, and why it smelled so bad,” Lowe wrote. “(Thomas) told him he shot a man and needed help moving a body. “At first he thought he was joking.”

When detectives interviewed Thomas, he allegedly named his girlfriend as White’s killer. According to Thomas’ arrest affidavit, he said he shot White in the head after his girlfriend attempted to sexually assault him.

“They both cleaned the floors with bleach and another cleaning agent,” Thomas allegedly said, according to Lowe. “They threw away all the items used for cleaning. He stated that they wrapped (White) in a sheet or blanket like a pastry.

Thomas allegedly claimed to have sold the murder weapon after the shooting.

When detectives told Thomas’ girlfriend that Thomas had accused her of killing White, the girl began to cry, according to Lowe.

“She couldn’t believe Thomas said that because they were supposed to get married,” Lowe wrote.

Thomas’ then-girlfriend was not charged in White’s murder, and detectives said Thomas’ accusations against her were inconsistent with available evidence.

Where does the case stand now?

Thomas has a history of violent assault in Vanderburgh County, according to a review of court records.

In 2023, Thomas pleaded guilty to one count of misdemeanor after the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office said he punched a man while in custody at the jail, causing the man to be placed on “suicide watch” to avoid being in Thomas’ immediate vicinity.

Vanderburgh County Superior Court Magistrate Judge Emily Hall sentenced Thomas to 32 days in jail for that crime, a sentencing memorandum states.

In September 2017, a man accused Thomas of rape, telling Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office investigators that Thomas assaulted him over several days and threatened “physical harm” while demanding that Thomas perform “sexual acts” on him. .

The Indiana State Police Laboratory would later conclude that the sexual assault kit collected from the victim contained both the victim’s and Thomas’ DNA, according to detectives.

Court records show Thomas later pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to 86 days in jail. Charges of rape and intimidation were denied.

In September, Thomas was charged in a new case. He allegedly imprisoned a woman in his apartment He attacked the woman, leaving her in “terror for life,” according to court records.

Thomas was scheduled to go to trial in the assault and imprisonment case on Wednesday, but prosecutors requested a postponement because Thomas was charged with felony murder, according to a legal filing.

Thomas’ attorney is scheduled to meet with prosecutors Wednesday afternoon before Vanderburgh County Circuit Judge David Kiely, the filing entry said. The re-examination hearing in the murder case will be held on December 13.

Houston Harwood can be reached at [email protected].

This article first appeared in the Evansville Courier & Press: Michael Logan Thomas re-indicted for Patrick White’s murder