Man convicted of killing Fort Worth club manager free after DNA evidence reinterpreted
A Dallas man convicted of a 2009 robbery and killing at a Fort Worth night club walked out of jail Thursday after new DNA results showed he did not handle the murder weapon.
Willie Mornel Thomas, who turns 39 on Dec. 31, was released on bond after spending more than 10 years in prison for crimes he has maintained he never committed.
“I’m so grateful and happy to be with my loved ones again,” Thomas said in a Thursday news release from the Innocence Project of Texas. “This is a blessing. I’m ready to move forward one day, one hour at a time and keep fighting to prove my innocence.”
Officials with the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office declined to comment on Friday, but they did support Thomas receiving a new trial.
Innocence Project of Texas along with Thomas’ attorney, C. Mark Nelson, worked the case.
Innocence Project of Texas is an organization that seeks to exonerate wrongfully convicted Texans by providing first-rate legal counsel and investigative services at no cost. Since 2006, the organization has exonerated or freed 26 people.
“Advances in science contribute to the accuracy of verdicts and help us seek justice for the wrongfully convicted,” said Mike Ware, executive director of Innocence Project of Texas, in the news release. “We will continue to work with Mr. Thomas’ counsel and the Tarrant County DA’s office to get to the truth in this case.”
Prosecutors had maintained that Thomas and others left a Dallas drug house run by an associate name “Little Pie,” and headed on the night of Jan. 30, 2009, to the New Start Club in Fort Worth.
The club’s manager was Willie Walker.
During the original trial, prosecutors had said the group sat at a table near the dance floor, and later Thomas and another suspect hid in a storage closet until closing time.
According to court testimony, at the end of the night, an employee let two other suspects out the club and locked the door behind them. A short time later, the employee was struck in the back of the head and dragged to the front of the club, where another employee was threatened.
At some point, authorities said, Walker, the manager, told the robbers he had money in the back and led them to the kitchen area, where he was shot four times. Crime-scene officers found a pistol at the scene, which had DNA from multiple contributors.
A forensic DNA analyst at the time testified Thomas’ DNA could not be excluded as the DNA found on the trigger.
In 2011, a Tarrant County jury sentenced Thomas to life without parole on a capital murder charge.
Innocence Project of Texas officials said witnesses at the club were not able to positively identify Thomas as being at the scene of the crime, and the Dallas man was implicated largely based on statements from two other suspects who later pleaded guilty to robbery for reduced sentences.
In addition, officials at IPTX said the DNA evidence has been reinterpreted with more advanced and accurate methods, and those results excluded Thomas as having his DNA on the weapon.
A writ is expected to be filed in a Tarrant County criminal court to have Thomas’ conviction vacated, according to the IPTX news release.
This report contains information from Fort Worth Star-Telegram archives.
This story was originally published December 17, 2021 at 1:49 PM.
