| Early in the morning of November 10, 1990, appellant Douglas Christopher Thomas shot and murdered J.B. and Kathy Wiseman as they slept in their home in Middlesex County, Virginia. At the time of the murders, Thomas, who was then 17, was living nearby with his aunt and uncle, Brenda and Herbert Marshall, and his niece, Lanie Creech, then 12. Thomas murdered the Wisemans at the behest of their daughter, Jessica, then 14, whom he was dating, because the Wisemans had been threatening to break up their relationship. On November 6, a few days before the murders, Creech overheard Thomas plotting with Jes- sica to "[g]et[ ] rid of her parents." Jessica asked Thomas "if he had enough bullets"; Thomas said that he did. Jessica Wiseman and Thomas then set a time to meet at the Wisemans' house in order to carry out the murders. At some point during the week before the murders, the Marshalls, with whom Thomas was living, traveled to Roanoke, Virginia, on a hunting and fishing trip. In order to ensure that the Marshalls did not return 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 admitted to 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 be sleeping; Jessica would then come to the Marshalls' house and bang on the door in feigned panic. Thomas then returned to Jessica's bedroom. Despite her horrific injury, Kathy Wiseman was not immediately killed, but managed to walk down the hall to Jessica's bedroom in order to check and see whether her daughter was OK. Upon seeing her mother standing at the doorway to her bedroom, Jessica yelled, "Oh God, Chris, please shoot her again." According to his subsequent confession, Thomas obliged her request, shooting Kathy Wiseman again in the head and this time killing her instantly. Thomas then returned home; a short time later, Jessica carried out the final stage of the plan, going to the Marshalls' house and banging on the door in feigned panic. Later that same day, Thomas confessed to both murders.After talking to Creech, Thomas left his house with a shotgun loaded 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, and briefly stopped to talk to Jessica and smoke more marijuana. Thomas then went to the Wisemans' bedroom. There, he shot J.B. Wiseman once in the head at close range, killing him instantly. He next pro- ceeded to shoot Kathy Wiseman in the head, essentially destroying the left side of her face. Thomas pled guilty to the first-degree murder of J.B. Wiseman and related firearms charges, and not guilty to the capital murder of Kathy Wiseman and related firearms charges. He was tried for the murder of Kathy Wiseman as an adult. On Friday, August 23, 1991, a jury 3 found Thomas guilty on all counts. On Monday, August 26, the same jury sentenced Thomas to death, finding as an aggravating factor that his 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 murder of J.B. Wiseman.2 |