Lawyers Paint Competing Scenarios For Jury At Close Of Trial Alleging Ty Thomas Murder

BEATRICE – A Gage County jury began deliberations Wednesday after lawyers painted competing scenarios about the last hour of Tyler Thomas' life.

The prosecution alleges that what ever happened at the Peru boat dock on Dec. 3, 2010, it convinced Joshua Keadle that he could never let her return to campus.

The defense says the phone records and WiFi hotspots support Keadle’s version of what happened and say Thomas was alive when he left her along the Missouri River.

The case went to a jury at 3:30 p.m.

Douglas Warner of the state Attorney General’s Office told the jury that, while search parties formed for the missing Peru State College freshman, Joshua Keadle held the trump card because he was the only one that knew where she was at.

He said Keadle pointing searchers in the opposite direction because he wanted time to make sure any evidence disappeared.

 

 

In his closing argument, defense attorney Matthew McDonald said Thomas had threatened to claim that Keadle had raped her and said Keadle did not immediately tell anyone that he took her to the boat ramp area because he wanted to give her time to "cool down" so allegations would not be made.

After the search for Thomas stretched into the fourth day, Keadle told investigators on Dec. 7 that he picked her up near campus on a promise to take her to Omaha. He said he negotiated a sex act for a ride to Omaha, but then told Thomas he would not give her the ride. Keadle told investigators that she was so angry he had to hold her wrists to keep her from hitting him. He said she got out of the car and, when she refused to get back in, he drove away.

Warner called  the story is a diversion.

He said Keadle maintained the lie that he did not leave his dorm building for days, until footage from a bank ATM camera camera showed his SUV. He said Keadle then attempted to maintain the lie that he while he did go to the river, but that Thomas was not with him and he did not see her there.

Investigators later told Keadle they might be able to track her cell phone and his cell phone. Warner said that is when Keadle admitted that he gave Thomas a ride to the boat ramp.

McDonald told the jury that the state’s theory that Keadle abducted Thomas does not fit the timeline and said Keadle’s account “has the ring of truth.”

Warner said Keadle was trying to protect himself from the truth.

He said Keadle picked up the dance team leader and drove her to a place where he could be in complete control. At some point, Warner said, Keadle made the decision to kill her.

Warner offered that it was because Thomas was not going to keep her mouth shut.

McDonald said the state had not proven murder and said Thomas is just as likely to have fallen in the river or committed suicide.

He said the timeline proves that Keadle did not kill her. He said the state’s theory that Keadle took her phone and began sending text messages to her contact list does not fit the timeline and does not explain why the text messages were things that Tyler would say.

Warner countered that the defense claims she was so drunk she might have fallen in the river, but the text messages were in perfect grammar and in rapid succession. He said it was a cold, winter night and she had no coat. He said a person suffering from early stages of hypothermia may not have the finger dexterity to make all those text messages.

McDonald said Keadle would have no more than 22 minutes to do everything the state claims, as WiFi locates him on campus at 1:36 a.m. and the bank video shows his SUV at 2:09 a.m.

 

He said when Keadle talked to investigators he was asking questions about if he would be in trouble for leaving her down at the river alive. He said Thomas alive when Keadle left and the state has not proven anything else.