Legal proceedings advance for a man charged with the molestation of two girls, then seeking a hitman
A f ter a prelimina r y hea r in g schedu led on We d ne sd ay, a S ola no County judge ordered the defendant, a Vacaville man charged with the molestation of two young girls and hiring a hitman to kill them while he was jailed, to return to court in the coming days for more legal proceedings.
Judge Tim Kam set a held- to- answer arraignment for Ronald Scott Thomas Jr., 46, at 8: 30 a.m. Oct. 7 in Department 7 in the Justice Building in Vallejo. Thomas is represented by criminal defense attorney Sal Giambona.
A Rio Vista High School graduate and a former petroleum truck driver for a Benicia business, Thomas has been in custody in Solano County Jail since June 2018, when he was arrested at his home in the 100 block of Del Rio Court in connection with the child sexual abuse.
According to the Solano Count y Distr ict Attorney’s complaint filed that same month, Thomas was charged with the continued sexual abuse of a child and lewd and lascivious acts with that child, who was under the age of 14 at the time. The abuse reportedly occurred between June 2009 and June 2013.
The complaint also included a charge of committing a lewd act upon a child under the age of 14, said to have occurred between September 2012 and September 2013 on the second girl.
Court documents reveal that Thomas, at some point while in jail, allegedly attempted to solicit numerous other inmates in a murder-for-hire plot.
A motion to remand the defendant and deny him bail, filed in August 2018, indicated an inmate told a correctional officer in July that Thomas asked him about having someone outside the jail kill the older victim for $5,000.
T he younger vic tim would apparently be an optional kill, the document’s wording indicated, “as she could not remember as much of what the defendant did to her given her age.”
Thomas reportedly provided maps of the girls’ schools and church and suggested the older victim be killed along with her dad, making the deaths appear to be a “drug deal gone wrong.”
The reporting inmate subsequently wore a wire and, earlier in August, engaged the suspect in conversation.
T h oma s , a ccording to the motion, of fered $5,000 apiece for the victims’ deaths and suggested various ways to have the girls and a family member killed.
One scenario: Gun them down in a mass shooting at their church or school “so it would not look like … (they) were specifically targeted.”
Payment, according to the document, would follow after gaining his mother’s Power of Attorney to access funding from a 401( k) pension plan.
Follow- up inter v iews with other inmates on Thomas’ cell block allegedly revealed seven were solicited for murder.
“With the exception of one inmate, the rest of the inmates that have come forward have stated that they will testify and are not seeking any type of leniency in exchange for their cooperation because they are so appalled by the defendant’s conduct,” officials wrote in the court documents.
Thomas later confessed af ter being confronted with mounting evidence, the officials added.
The investigation was an effort between multiple agencies, including the Solano County District Attorney’s Office, the Solano County Sheriff’s Office and the Fairfield Police Department.
Thomas is being held without bail.