Thomas sentenced in shooting deaths

BY STACI WILSON

A Hallstead-area man convicted of two counts of voluntary manslaughter in the Feb. 11, 2012 Great Bend Twp. shooting deaths of Joshua Rogers and Gilberto Alvarez will spend six to 12 years in prison.

Lloyd Thomas, 47, was sentenced by President Judge Kenneth Seamans Monday afternoon in Susquehanna County Court following nearly two hours of emotional testimony from the Alvarez, Rogers and Thomas families.

Thomas received concurrent six to 12 year sentences for both counts of voluntary manslaughter, followed by eight years probation. He was also assessed $100 fines on the drug paraphernalia and possession of marijuana convictions.

Thomas said, “I’m sorry for your losses. It’s a tragedy I will live with for the rest of my life. I’m really sorry. Please forgive me.”

“It’s my turn now,” Joshua Rogers’ father, George Rogers said when he took the stand. “I sat in the court room quietly in the trial.”

He said that although he was glad the jury handed down a verdict of guilty, it wasn’t the verdict he wanted.

Thomas was found not guilty by the jury on the more serious first and third degree homicide counts lodged against him.

“This man murdered my son, Joshua Rogers, and his best friend, Gilberto Alvarez. They were shot dead for no good reason,” Mr. Rogers told the court.

He spoke of Rogers and Alvarez’s military service. “Both served their country, and were decorated for it,” he said adding the men knew they could be killed in action. “Neither thought they would be killed at home.”
“This man had control of a gun shop but no control of his actions,” Mr. Rogers said.

“Someone must be punished; a standard must be set,” Mr. Rogers said. “The right message must be sent.”

Alvarez’s mother, Suzette Bennett read a letter sent to her from the platoon sergeant her son served under while stationed in Afghanistan.

She told the court Alvarez had served two tours and struggled with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder when he returned home and then moved to Pennsylvania to start a new life.

“I never thought he would survive two tours only to have someone take his life senselessly,” she told the court.

“The day you shot my son, you shot me as well. You killed a part of me as well,” Bennett said. “Your family can go to jail to visit you. I have to go to a grave site to visit my son.”

She said that although she did not see any remorse from Thomas during the trial, she was “choosing to forgive you anyway.”

In January, a Susquehanna County jury took just two hours to convict on the two first degree felony counts of voluntary manslaughter.

For the voluntary manslaughter convictions, the jury had to find that Thomas killed Joshua Rogers and Gilberto Alvarez because he believed he was in danger but that his belief was unreasonable.

Thomas shot Rogers and Alvarez when the men approached the Pine Ayre Drive residence through the woods after their car was hit by a bullet as it was traveling on Dubois Street, near the Thomas property. Rogers had told his live-in girlfriend, Lena Clark, that he and Alvarez were going to find the person who shot the vehicle just prior to the shooting.

On their approach to the Thomas residence, Rogers was carrying a weapon; Alvarez was unarmed.

Thomas was represented at the sentencing hearing by attorney Bernard Brown. Attorney George Lepley had been his attorney during the trial.

Thomas’ family members spoke of him as a gentle man, always willing to help others and asked for the court to show leniency.

District Attorney Jason Legg acknowledged to the court that the case was both “tragic” and “difficult.”

“In many ways it divided our small community,” Legg said.

He noted to the court that despite media reports, this was not a “test case” for the state’s Castle Doctrine. A jury determined Thomas never had a reasonable fear for his safety, Legg said, and the outcome would have been the same under any test of law. “It was not a ‘test case’ for anything,” Legg said.

Judge Seamans said he viewed the case as “one moment in time; an hour where bade decisions were made.”

He said he did not believe Thomas intended to shoot Rogers’ car as it was driving up the road and said that “colossal errors” brought about the tragic incident.

“There are three families here today. We are left with an awful moment in time where awful, deadly mistakes were made. The worst thing that could happen did happen.”