Convict loses bid to withdraw guilty plea 10 years later

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This article was published 15/02/2022 (1496 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ten years after she admitted beating a frail customer to death, a former Winnipeg sex-trade worker has lost a legal fight to withdraw her guilty plea to second-degree murder.

Mary Ellen Thomas, 41, was sentenced in December 2011 to life in prison, with no chance of parole for 10 years, in the July 2010 killing of 62-year-old Michael Allen.

In a decision last week, Manitoba’s highest court rejected Thomas’s claim her guilty plea was compromised by severe mental illness and thus not voluntary.

“Although the accused has undoubtedly had severe mental health problems for years, and sought the prospect of a change from her custodial situation and the availability of long-term psychiatric care when she decided to plead guilty… she has not established that her guilty plea was not voluntary and resulted in a miscarriage of justice,” Manitoba Court of Appeal Justice Karen Simonsen wrote in a decision delivered Feb. 11.

At the time of his death, Allen had a blood alcohol level nearly four times the legal limit to drive, suffered from tuberculosis, and weighed just 112 pounds. Allen suffered dozens of injuries in the fatal attack, including brain trauma, 14 broken ribs, a broken neck and deep cuts to his throat and face.

City police arrested Thomas after they were called to Allen’s Nassau Street home for a well-being check and found him lying in a pool of blood at the bottom of the basement stairwell.

Court heard at her sentencing Thomas told police she “lost it and went crazy,” after Allen accused her of stealing his wallet after hiring her for sex. Thomas was high on crack and drunk at the time of the attack, court was told.

After attacking Allen, Thomas visited a nearby convenience store where she stabbed a female customer before returning to Allen’s house and falling asleep on a couch.

Court heard at sentencing Thomas — who had multiple prior convictions for violence — had been “tentatively” diagnosed prior to the killing with bipolar mood disorder and possible schizophrenia.

Doctors who examined Thomas after her arrest, however, found her “clear” in her thinking and not someone who could be considered not criminally responsible for her actions.

On appeal, Thomas argued she was “overwhelmed” by her poor mental health at the time she pleaded guilty to murder and was driven by a desire to move from provincial remand custody to a federal prison, where she believed conditions would be better for her.

In an affidavit provided to court, Thomas claimed she was not taking the proper medication at the time she entered her guilty plea, was haunted by thoughts of a miscarriage and was suicidal.

At sentencing, Thomas told court she wanted to “take responsibility for (her) actions,” and enter a plea to second-degree murder, not manslaughter.

Asked about the comment at her appeal hearing, Thomas claimed she only pleaded guilty to second-degree murder because she was afraid if she “kept on fighting” for manslaughter she would be charged with first-degree murder.

“I found this explanation to be unconvincing as there is no indication the accused has ever been or would be charged with first-degree murder,” Simonsen said.

Thomas, who was granted an extension to file her appeal in 2017, had several lawyers withdraw from her case over the years and most recently represented herself before the appeal court.

Thomas remains in custody.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca