Man guilty in fatal road rage
He will spend the rest of his life in prison for Allentown shooting
Charles Hughes III was four blocks from home, tired from working overtime at his early morning Costco shift, eager to unload the cases of water he’d filled his car with to donate to Puerto Rican hurricane victims.
His path crossed with Curtis Nathan Thomas, who ran the stop sign at the corner of South Ninth and Wyoming streets. It was just before noon.
Tires squealed. Brakes locked up. Angry words flew. Neighbors in the quiet south Allentown neighborhood ran to their windows to check out the commotion.
Then, a single shotgun blast rang out, and Hughes, 32, lay dead on the sidewalk.
In a Lehigh County courtroom on Friday, jurors found Thomas, 37, guilty of first-degree murder in Hughes’ Nov. 1, 2017, slaying. He’ll serve life in prison with no chance of parole for a killing that prosecutors said struck a nerve in the community.
“He’s gunned down in cold blood in the middle of the street,” said Chief Deputy District Attorney Jeffrey S. Dimmig. “He had his life completely cut short, senselessly, by a person who had a complete indifference to human life. Over a stop sign?”
The verdict capped a threeday trial in Allentown in which prosecutors laid out a long list of circumstantial evidence against
Thomas:
Witnesses to the 11:54 a.m. shooting described a man fitting Thomas’ description — right down to his clothing, long dreadlocks and eyeglasses — and said the killer was driving a truck that matched the purple Honda Ridgeline Thomas was arrested in about two hours after shooting.
Forensic experts also testified that Hughes was killed with a weapon and ammunition that matched the 12-gauge shotgun and shells recovered from Thomas’ truck.
Thomas’ public defender, Mark Merdinger, asked jurors to find reasonable doubt because the witnesses did not positively identify Thomas.
Merdinger also reminded the jury of discrepancies in witnesses’ accounts. One man said the shooter was wearing black pants, while another said dark jeans, for example.
“When you’re being asked to convict someone of first-degree murder, details matter. They do,” Merdinger said.
During an impassioned closing argument, Dimmig turned Merdinger’s argument around, listing more than two dozen details that linked Thomas to the killing.
He noted that a woman who saw the shooting described the sound of the pump-action shotgun being racked before the fatal shot, and drew an almost exact likeness of the gun for police.
Dimmig also pointed to a text message sent from Thomas’ phone within a half hour of the shooting, in which he wrote in slang that he needed to find a new vehicle because he had to “dxgg” someone.
Dimmig argued that the word meant kill, though Merdinger said there was no proof that’s what “dxgg” means.
The prosecutor told the jury that Thomas’ own words before the killing, recounted by a witness, proved his intent to kill Hughes.
“I got something for you,” Thomas told Hughes, according to witnesses.
The shooting happened in broad daylight in a mostly residential neighborhood.
Witnesses told police that Hughes, who was driving a sedan, and Thomas, in a pickup truck, got into a minor traffic altercation, then exited their vehicles and exchanged angry words.
Police say Thomas went back to his truck, unlocked the back door and pulled out a shotgun. Hughes died at the scene. Thomas, who has ties to the Washington, D.C., area, was arrested about two hours after the slaying following a brief police chase that ended with him losing control and driving onto the sidewalk at Fifth and Turner streets in Center City Allentown.
Police said they found in the truck 58 bags of a white powder and rock-like substance that tested positive for cocaine, and 15 bags of another substance that tested positive as an amphetamine-based narcotic.
After the verdict, prosecutors revealed that Thomas’ criminal record includes assault, robbery and firearm violations from Maryland.
Thomas did not take the stand at his trial, and the defense didn’t call any witnesses.
The jury of 10 women and two men deliberated less than one hour before finding Thomas guilty of first-degree murder and fleeing and eluding police.
In a separate proceeding, Judge James T. Anthony found Thomas guilty of two firearms offenses.
Thomas did not react as the verdict was read. In the courtroom audience, Hughes’ family cried out with relief at the word “guilty.”
Thomas will be sentenced next month. In addition to life, he faces up to 20 years on the flight and gun charges.
Dimmig, who prosecuted the case along with Senior Deputy District Attorney Robert Schopf, said he hoped the verdict would bring Hughes’ family some closure, and also quell fear in the community.
“Everybody comes home from work, everybody has to come down their street, and they want to make sure they feel safe,” Dimmig said. “I think this jury understood that.”