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June 6-12, 2002

city beat

New Trial for Dying Con

A judge rules that Fred Thomas' rights were violated.

by Jenn Carbin

Seven years after being sentenced to death for the North Philadelphia murder of a Federal Express driver, Frederick Thomas is entitled to a new trial, said Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Willis W. Berry Jr.

"I think his rights were violated, no matter how I look at this transcript," Berry said Friday, referring to two weeks of testimony during an evidentiary hearing in March.

Berry ruled that Jay Gottlieb, the defense attorney for the first two trials (the first ended in a hung jury), did his job, but contended that "rotten" tactics on the part of investigators and the involvement of James Ryan, a convicted former police officer, meant that Thomas, whose police record includes a conviction for manslaughter, "did not get a fair trial ... could not get a fair trial."

In 1993, William "Skip" Moyer Jr. was shot in the face at Ninth and Clearfield streets, a drug-infested neighborhood often referred to as the Badlands.

Berry said "the linchpin" of his finding rests on defense witness Maria Fielding. Fielding, who died in 1999, gave a statement to police the morning after Moyer's murder, in which she described three male assailants, none being Thomas.

Berry pointed to Fielding's statement, her alleged intimidation at the hands of Ryan, and the failure of the D.A.'s office to bring her into court for the Thomas trials, even though at one point she was in the same building for charges on an unrelated matter. Two bench warrants issued for Fielding around the first two trials apparently were not lodged for her; prosecutors at the time maintained she had left the area and couldn't be found.

District Attorney Lynne Abraham said she was "disturbed" by Berry's decision and would immediately appeal his ruling to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Thomas, who is 56 and suffers from a host of ailments, including end-stage liver disease, was in court for the decision. He turned to smile at family members as they rejoiced over Berry's finding.

Moyer's family members left the courtroom quickly and quietly.

William Moyer Sr. said before the hearing that he hoped things would "stay the way they are," expressing doubt for the defense's assertion that Thomas was the victim of a bad cop, a misguided, inadequate investigation and ineffective assistance on the part of the original defense attorney.

Thomas was convicted based on the testimony of two men who were brought to the investigation by Ryan, a police officer who was not assigned to the district or the case. Ryan has since been convicted of shaking down drug dealers and illegal armed detentions, among other charges unrelated to the Thomas matter. Though prosecutors have always argued, and Abraham reiterated on Friday, that Ryan's involvement was minimal and should not affect the outcome of the case, Ryan himself took credit for the Thomas arrest in a U.S. District Court deposition for a different case in 1996. In the court record, he says, "There was no homicide leads, no nothing. Myself and my partner went out and found two witnesses and this led to the arrest."

Charles "Countrie" Rowe and Willie "Greenie" Green were sitting on a step across the street from the murder site when Moyer was shot to death. They didn't see the murder from where they were, but later testified that Thomas had walked around Moyer's Federal Express truck quickly after they heard a gunshot.

During the evidentiary hearing, James Wilkerson, whose mother lives on the street where the murder took place, by and large corroborated Fielding's version of events. Prosecutors questioned why Wilkerson waited so long to come forward; he testified that he was fearful of naming drug dealers.

No physical evidence links Thomas to the crime.

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