Man awaiting trial for brazen city murder makes audacious bail bid after ‘working on himself’ in jail

October 23, 2024

A man awaiting trial for a brazen San Francisco murder, who was left free to kill after a trusting judge gave him a break in a gun assault case, has asked to be let out of jail again – and promised that he will come back to court and not commit any other crimes in a bid to sweeten the deal.

Prosecutors say Milton Thomas opened fire on a group of people standing on the street in the city’s Tenderloin district on the evening of September 16 2023. James Allen was hit and killed while a bystander sustained a gunshot wound to the leg. Five days earlier, they say, Thomas had shot at an SUV in a road rage incident still being investigated at the time of Allen’s murder.

Milton Thomas opening fire on September 16 2023

In a motion filed ahead of a bail hearing scheduled for next month, Thomas’ attorney insists that he is not a flight risk, that any concerns the court has about public safety can be addressed, and that it is racist to keep him in jail.

“Here, a financial condition of release is not required. Based on Thomas’ history and community ties, this court should release Thomas on his own recognizance and, if necessary, impose a non-financial condition of release.”

Thomas has no reason to flee, the motion says, as he was born and raised in San Francisco, his family lives in the city and he has a job waiting for him at the Bayview Hunter’s Point Foundation. While in jail he took a “Discovering Your True Self” course and took time “to work on himself and better himself,” it adds.

Any concerns the court has about public safety, the motion suggests, could be addressed through the imposition of a no-weapons condition and anger management counseling, possibly alongside a curfew, home confinement and/or an ankle monitor.

It complains that Thomas, who is black, cannot afford to pay any amount of bail and that “[t]he money bail system disproportionately keeps [b]lack and [b]rown people in custody.” This violates California’s Racial Justice Act, it says, and he ought to be released on his own recognizance until his murder trial begins.

“Here, a financial condition of release is not required,” reads the motion. “Based on Thomas’ history and community ties, this court should release Thomas on his own recognizance and, if necessary, impose a non-financial condition of release.”

At a preliminary hearing on December 20 2023 Superior Court Judge Christine Van Aken held Thomas to answer on six counts: murder, assault with a semi-automatic firearm, shooting at an occupied vehicle, grossly negligent discharge of a firearm, and two separate counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

The court was shown video from a passing MUNI bus and nearby surveillance cameras showed Milton Thomas run toward a group of eight people standing on Jones Street, draw a gun and fire twice. One shot killed James Allen, part of the group, while the other hit the leg of a bystander some distance away.

Other footage presented to court showed Thomas, 42, triggering a road rage incident where he exchanged words with a driver, then drew a gun and fired at him. This took place only days before, and a few blocks distant from the murder site.

Thomas, who has a track record of illegal gun possession spanning two decades, would have been behind bars at the time of the killing but for the determination of a trusting federal judge to give him another chance. After he robbed and pistol-whipped a rival drug-dealer, four blocks from the murder, the federal prosecutor assigned to his case prophetically labelled him “a deadly accident waiting to happen” and pressed for an immediate prison term. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer disagreed and deferred sentencing.

Thomas was indicted by a federal grand jury in June 2021 on charges stemming from a 2020 incident where he pistol-whipped a rival Tenderloin drug dealer while robbing him. He tried to dispose of the gun – a Glock 22 equipped with an extended magazine loaded with 27 .40 caliber rounds plus one in the chamber – before he was arrested at gunpoint. DNA evidence proved the weapon was his.

A sentencing hearing for the underlying offense was held on October 26 2022 at which Assistant U.S. Attorney Alethea Sargent asked the court to impose a 46 month prison sentence. Instead, the judge agreed with a defense proposal for a noncustodial disposition and deferred sentencing in order for Thomas to maintain his employment prospects, family relationships and medical treatment.

In her sentencing memorandum, Sargent said that the defendant “appears to have spent his entire adult life engaged in criminal activity [and…] his last twenty years has [seen] a series of arrests punctuated by convictions for both narcotics trafficking and firearms offenses.”

“A 46-month sentence is necessary to change this dangerous course of conduct and to protect the public from a deadly accident waiting to happen.”

Describing the incident as “an isolated transgression,” federal public defenders explained in their sentencing memorandum that Thomas was working at a homeless shelter run by city nonprofit Hospitality House at the time, and conflicts would arise with clients as he tried to keep order in the facility. He said we was receiving threats when he made the “disastrous decision to commit the conduct at issue in this case.”

The memorandum went on to say that “[c]ontinuing supervision will ensure sufficient punishment, give him the opportunity to show that he has been truly deterred from future criminal conduct and is no longer a danger to the community, commit to continued rehabilitation under Pretrial Services’ supervision, and allow him the best chance of living a law-abiding life.”

Judge Breyer agreed to defer sentencing. Sentencing was deferred again on December 14 2022 and June 14 2023. The next sentencing hearing was set for December 12 2023.

Thomas was therefore free on September 16 2023.

Thomas’ bail motion will be heard by Superior Court Judge Eric Fleming on November 8 2024.

The case continues.