CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Two prosecution witnesses in the trial of a man who fatally shot another man inside a Rand apartment testified in Kanawha County Circuit Court Tuesday the shooting was not planned.
Robert Obey of Rand told the jury Leonard Dwayne “D” Thomas shot Gerald Maxwell inside his apartment the morning of Dec. 17, 2014.
Before the incident, Obey said Thomas previously talked about wanting to shoot someone, but he didn’t believe Thomas would follow through.
“You know how people talk when they get mad. They say stuff that they really don’t mean at the time,” Obey said. “I didn’t actually think that the man was going to shoot the man.”
Obey said he held a house party the night before the shooting. Maxwell and a few others attended to drink and do drugs. He said Maxwell was selling heroin at the party. Denise Fitzwater of Charleston, another witness who was called to the stand Tuesday, said she was there to buy heroin from Maxwell, but didn’t see any altercation between him and Thomas that night.
“Nobody did anything that night or morning that, in your mind, gave “D” a reason to shoot them?” the prosecutor asked Fitzwater.
“Absolutely not,” Fitzwater responded. “I mean he talked about doing stuff like that, but I never thought he would actually — I just thought it was talk.”
Thomas had made threats to Fitzwater and her ex-boyfriend that night, but she said she brushed it off at the time. The next morning, Obey said he saw Thomas sitting at his kitchen table playing with a gun.
“He had the shells and he kept popping it in and out,” he said, “I asked him I said ‘what the hell you doing, man?’ and he just looked at me like I was crazy and just kept doing it.”
Obey said he went upstairs after that. About 30 minutes later he heard a banging noise on the bathroom door then went downstairs to see what happened.
“I looked up again and I see ‘D’ walking past my TV and I looked over and I saw Gerald laying on the couch,” he told the jury.
“What was ‘D’ holding, if anything?” Kanawha County assistant prosecutor Maryclaire Akers asked.
“He was holding a gun in his hand,” Obey replied.
“Was the holding the same gun you had seen him loading?” she asked.
“Yes, ma’am,” Obey confirmed.
Fitzwater told the court she took off running out of the apartment when Obey informed her there was a shooting. She said she didn’t return to the home because she feared Thomas would then shoot her because he threatened to do so the night before.
“He said that he was counting and I said what for? He said ’cause I need to know how many bullets I need cause I’mma kill every one of you m***** f****** before the night’s up,” she said.
Thomas allegedly shot Maxwell in the living room in an argument over heroin, Fitzwater said.
Maxwell died several days later at CAMC General Hospital.
Thomas was charged with first-degree murder. The trial began Monday and will continue Wednesday.