Gary W. Thomas

Gary W. Thomas (March 19, 1938 – April 3, 2017) was an American lawyer and Judge who served as a Marin County, California prosecutor and Superior Court judge. Thomas was primarily known for his role in the Marin County Civic Center shootout in which he was taken hostage in a courtroom, along with Judge Harold Haley and three female jurors, by Jonathan Jackson and three inmates from San Quentin State Prison in what is widely speculated to be a failed attempt to free his brother, George Jackson, and the other two Soledad Brothers. Haley, Jonathan Jackson, and two of the inmates were killed during the escape attempt, and Thomas was paralyzed from the waist down.

Background Thomas was a native of Great Falls, Montana. His father was James Walter Thomas and his step-mother was Vera T. Thomas. Thomas and his family moved to San Francisco, California when he was nine years old, but he frequently returned to Montana during the summers to work on his uncle's cattle ranch.

Thomas graduated from San Francisco's Riordan High School. He joined the State Bar of California in 1962, then worked in private practice and as a deputy county prosecutor until 1969 when he was promoted to assistant district attorney.

He was an avid fisherman.

The following day, photographs of the perpetrators with their hostages, including Thomas, appeared on the front pages of newspapers around the nation. An initial report indicated that he was seriously wounded in the back. Another UPI report from the same day indicated that Thomas was wounded in the chest and spine and quoted him as telling District Attorney Bruce B. Bales that he grabbed a gun from the driver and shot three of the kidnappers. According to Bales, Thomas murmured to his wife: "Judge Haley was a saint. I got three of them."

Two days after the shootout, Thomas remained in critical condition at Marin General Hospital following surgery for bullet wounds in his back and was described as a "key witness in the question of who fired first in [the] gun battle".

Thomas was reportedly shot three times. In addition to the bullet that entered through his back and severed his spine, another nicked his heart and a third pierced his lungs. Questioned by Marin County District Attorney Bruce Bales, he indicated that it was Magee who shot Judge Haley. Graham told of how Haley, Thomas, and the three jurors were wired together and forced out of the courthouse and into the escape van.

A few days later, the recently promoted Judge Thomas described Jackson's appearance and commented that he was holding a handgun. Thomas said: "The people in the courtroom, including myself and the guards, were instructed to get down on the floor. I got down on the floor where I was seated, stretched out." He reported that he kept his eyes on the bench and watched McClain approach Haley. Thomas told the court that Magee said: "Let's not take any of them. Let's kill them all here." He quoted McClain has replying: "Cool it. Don't lose your cool." #tag:ref|According to a UPI report in The Modesto Bee, McClain was in the front passenger's seat. Branton also pointed out some minor inconsistencies in Thomas' story, and got him to admit that he could not tell which of the two identical .357 magnums on the table he had used. As Haley had also been hit by a .357 slug in the heart, Branton attempted to reconstruct the events within the van to show that Thomas accidentally shot the judge - and that his death throes caused the shotgun held by Magee to discharge. The ballistics expert would later demonstrate that Thomas shot who he said he shot and the .357 held by Christmas shot Haley. #tag:ref|According to a UPI report in the Beaver County Times, Fred H. Wynbrandt, testified that McClain and Magee were hit by bullets fired from a gun belonging to Deputy David Mori.

Joseph J. Murphy, a San Quentin Prison sergeant, would testify that he removed a carbine that was "sticking up" and blocking access to Thomas.

Ruchell Magee trial

On January 22, 1973, Thomas would recount his story again in the trial of Ruchell Magee. Magee, who had been thrown out of every previous session of the trial, was reported to have sat quietly through Thomas' testimony while never taking his eyes off of him. One member of the jury, Hugh Chalmers, stated that the panel did not accept Thomas' testimony. Chalmers remarked: "We think that what happened in that van was not as the pain-ridden Mr. Thomas thought they happened. We feel that the judge was already dead when the shotgun went off. I think Mr. Thomas was honest, but I think his story was twisted."

Professional career and judicial office In 1971, Thomas successfully prosecuted a homeowner who rigged a .22 caliber pistol as a booby-trap that wounded a teenager burglar. The California Supreme Court later upheld the conviction of assault with a deadly weapon and ruled that a spring gun may not be used to defend a home against burglary. This ruling is frequently cited as an example of case law pertaining to self-defense.

During the course of the Davis and Magee trials, Thomas became a municipal court judge and later a California Superior Court judge who presided over a number of cases involving high-profile individuals.

Municipal court Two years after the Marin County Civic Center shootout, California Governor Ronald Reagan appointed Thomas a municipal court judge. His role in municipal court was to handle misdemeanors, some civil suits, and the initial proceedings of felony cases. In 1973, Thomas ordered Glenn Yarbrough to pay $350 per month after the singer pleaded no contest to charges of failing to provide child support. Thomas received brief national publicity in 1975 for sentencing petty offenders to writing out thousands of times their promises not to violate various misdemeanor laws. He claimed that this type of punishment fit the crime and served as a good deterrent as the offenders would be jailed for hours at a time while completing their sentences. In March, Thomas imposed probation on Slick who had earlier been convicted of drunk driving.

Superior court

Thomas was elected a superior court judge in 1986. In 1991, Thomas set bail at $500,000 for pornography pioneer Jim Mitchell until he could stand trial for the shooting death of his brother, Artie Mitchell; Mitchell was also ordered to surrender his passport and remain in the Bay Area. In 1994, famed forensic psychiatrist Martin Blinder was sued by a former lover for "professional negligence, assault and battery, sexual abuse, and inflicting emotional distress." Later, when the woman repeatedly failed to appear in court, Thomas dismissed the suit and ordered her to pay $13,000 in costs. Armstrong had previously settled a civil suit against the COS for $800,000 with the stipulation that he would not divulge information he had gained as a church insider. In 2004, Armstrong would file a document in Marin County Superior Court asserting that Thomas conspired with the Church of Scientology against him to violate various Constitution Rights and that his orders were illegal.

As of 1995, Thomas was one of three judges who had been appointed by the Marin County Superior Court to specialize in California Environmental Quality Act cases.

Retirement and death Thomas retired from the bench in 1998. He died on April 3, 2017, aged 79, due to "natural causes". According to his wife, he had kidney problems, pneumonia, and other complications from his paralysis.