“Mr. Gales doesn't have a record of violence”

The stink continues in the Kim Thomas murder case. The Mecklenburg County district attorney’s office is taking huge leaps to avoid investigating Marion Gales for that 1990 murder. Prosecutors signaled yesterday they are not and will not go out their way to establish Gales’ connection to that crime.

Technically the matter involved the April murder of Lacoya Monique Martin that Gales stands charged with committing. Assistant District Attorney Jay Ashendorf announced that the state will not seek the death penalty in the Martin murder. Gales’ defense attorney Terry Sherrill said that was because, “Mr. Gales doesn’t have a record of violence.”

That is fine and proper for a defense attorney to say. But it is incorrect on both the facts and situation. Gales does have a history of violence, violence directed at women in particular. The state of North Carolina considers Gales a habitual felon.

But even more importantly, what Gales’ attorney could accurately say is that Peter Gilchrist does not think Gales has a record of violence — and has no incentive to change that view with new evidence in the Thomas case. In short, by announcing that there is no capital case to be made in the Martin murder, Gilchrist’s office is also saying that there is no evidence to link Gales to the Thomas murder.

Really? Has that determination already been made? All the evidence from the Thomas case has been subjected to touch DNA analysis and no link to Gales has been found? If so, that finding needs to be announced upfront. If not….

There is a clear conflict of interest festering in the prosecutor’s office, one that is impairing the application of justice in this county. At a minimum the state attorney general should name an independent prosecutor to handle the Martin murder case given the district attorney’s office vested interest in not re-visiting any Gales connection to the Thomas murder.