Select by gender or name

Crime

On June 14th, 1990, at around 7 pm, 42-year-old Catherine Thompson went to pick up her husband of 10 years, Melvin Thompson, from his auto transmission shop.

Before she made it inside, she heard gunshots. Someone alerted her a gunman was inside the shop, so she fled to a payphone to call for help.

When police arrived at the shop, they found that 49-year-old Melvin had been shot multiple times. He was taken to the hospital, where he passed away.

Investigation

Detectives brought Catherine in for questioning, and she told them that she saw a black man in his thirties near the shop after she heard the gunshots.

She also told investigators that Melvin had a Rolex. Since the Rolex was missing, police briefly suspected the crime was a robbery gone wrong.

However, Melvin still had his wallet, which contained credit cards and $1,300 cash, so robbery was ruled out.

Police talked with a man who was at a nearby gas station at the time of the crime. He had written down the license plate of a suspicious car he saw speeding away from the shop.

Police quickly determined that 37-year-old Phillip Conrad Sanders rented the vehicle from Thrifty Rent-A-Car.

They went to Phillips’s home around five hours after the crime and saw the car parked outside. Phillip claimed he didn’t drive the car after 6 pm, but the hood was warm, so the police knew he was lying.

Detectives also noticed a piece of paper on the counter with Catherine’s telephone number on it. After speaking with Phillip and searching the car with his permission, they arrested him.

They continued investigating Catherine and Phillip’s connection and determined they were both involved in a fraudulent real estate deal months earlier. They also learned that Catherine had embezzled money from an employer and owed them around $25,000.

Investigators located two life insurance policies on Melvin. One was issued in 1988 and was worth 100,000 dollars. The other was issued months before the crime and would pay out $300,000 for an accidental death or homicide.

Police arrested Catherine for murder for hire four days after her husband died. She quickly stated, “I didn’t know Phil at all; I only met him once, and that was about the sale of a car.”

Police saw this as more evidence of her guilt, as they never mentioned Phillip during the arrest.

While Catherine was in custody, she had a friend of hers take Melvin’s Jewelry off his body after his funeral. Catherine got out a few days later, pawed the jewelry, and went with friends to Nevada to gamble.

Police rearrested her after they gathered more evidence.

Police also arrested Phillip’s 37-year-old wife, Carolyn Sanders, as she was involved in planning the murder. Her son, 20-year-old Robert Lewis Jones, the getaway driver, was also arrested.

Prosecution

Prosecutors tried Catherine and Phillip together in the fall of 1992.

Phillip was convicted of murder and sentenced to life without parole.

A jury convicted Catherine of first-degree murder and conspiracy to murder. A jury sentenced her to die as the special circumstance of murder for financial gain made it a death penalty case.

It’s unclear what happened to Carolyn Sanders and Robert Lewis Jones.