True Story that inspired Twisted Desire, DouglasChristopher Thomas photo

in the morning of November 10, 1990, appellant DouglasChristopher Thomas shot and murdered J.B. and Kathy Wiseman asthey slept in their home in Middlesex County, Virginia. At the timeof the murders, Thomas, who was then 17, was living nearby with hisaunt and uncle, Brenda and Herbert Marshall, and his niece, LanieCreech, then 12.Thomas murdered the Wisemans at the behest of their daughter,Jessica, then 14, whom he was dating, because the Wisemans hadbeen threatening to break up their relationship. On November 6, a fewdays before the murders, Creech overheard Thomas plotting with Jes-sica to "[g]et[ ] rid of her parents." Jessica asked Thomas "if he hadenough bullets"; Thomas said that he did. Jessica Wiseman andThomas then set a time to meet at the Wisemans' house in order tocarry out the murders.At some point during the week before the murders, the Marshalls,with whom Thomas was living, traveled to Roanoke, Virginia, on ahunting and fishing trip. In order to ensure that the Marshalls did notreturn unexpectedly and thereby disrupt the plan to murder the Wise-mans, Thomas drove to Roanoke and cut the brake lines on the Mar-shalls' truck.On November 9 -- the night of the murders -- Thomas admittedto Creech that he was "going over to Jessica's . . . [t]o kill two peo-ple." Thomas told Creech that his plan was to go over to the Wise-mans' house, shoot the Wisemans, and return home and pretend to besleeping; Jessica would then come to the Marshalls' house and bangon the door in feigned panic.Thomas then returned to Jessica's bedroom. Despite her horrificinjury, Kathy Wiseman was not immediately killed, but managed towalk down the hall to Jessica's bedroom in order to check and seewhether her daughter was OK. Upon seeing her mother standing atthe doorway to her bedroom, Jessica yelled, "Oh God, Chris, pleaseshoot her again." According to his subsequent confession, Thomasobliged her request, shooting Kathy Wiseman again in the head andthis time killing her instantly. Thomas then returned home; a shorttime later, Jessica carried out the final stage of the plan, going to theMarshalls' house and banging on the door in feigned panic. Later thatsame day, Thomas confessed to both murders.After talking to Creech, Thomas left his house with a shotgunloaded with buckshot and went over to the Wisemans' house, stop-ping along the way to smoke marijuana. Upon reaching the house,Thomas climbed in through the window of Jessica's bedroom, andbriefly stopped to talk to Jessica and smoke more marijuana. Thomasthen went to the Wisemans' bedroom. There, he shot J.B. Wisemanonce in the head at close range, killing him instantly. He next pro-ceeded to shoot Kathy Wiseman in the head, essentially destroyingthe left side of her face.Thomas pled guilty to the first-degree murder of J.B. Wiseman andrelated firearms charges, and not guilty to the capital murder of KathyWiseman and related firearms charges. He was tried for the murderof Kathy Wiseman as an adult. On Friday, August 23, 1991, a jury3found Thomas guilty on all counts. On Monday, August 26, the samejury sentenced Thomas to death, finding as an aggravating factor thathis conduct in committing the murder was vile, horrible, or inhuman,and finding no mitigating circumstances. See Va. Code § 19.2-264.2.On November 11, the trial judge imposed the death sentence and sen-tenced Thomas to a further sixty-seven years in prison for the murderof J.B. Wiseman.2