Felon out on bond in Columbus murder case illegally went to gun range for target practice
Travis Eugene Thomas was a four-time convicted felon out on a bond in a murder case when he went to a Columbus gun range and illegally rented a firearm for target practice.
So when he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter Monday in Muscogee Superior Court, prosecutor Kim Schwartz made sure the judge addressed Thomas’ “brazen” flouting of the law against felons having firearms.
That offense added 10 more years to Thomas’ sentence in the 2018 fatal shooting of Darnell Falanda Jackson, for which Judge Maureen Gottfriend sent Thomas to prison for 30 years, with 30 more to serve on probation.
Besides voluntary manslaughter, Thomas pleaded guilty to armed robbery, using a gun to commit a crime and being a convicted felon with a firearm.
Because he is a repeat offender, he will have to serve the full 30 years before he can be released. He is 42 years old.
Noting Thomas will not leave prison until he’s 72, Judge Gottfried told him that she would not have accepted the plea, were he a younger man.
The increasing pace of fatal gun violence in Columbus is an alarming trend that shocks the public, and “it has to stop,” she said.
“None of us feels protected. It is happening in every part of this town, and to just decide that you are the one making the decision as to whether or not someone lives or dies is just scary,” Gottfried said. “It’s ruining us, and I don’t know what we need to do to get this to stop.”
The shooting
Thomas’ prior offenses include three convictions for possessing marijuana with the intent to distribute it, and detectives said a dispute over a drug deal is what led to the fatal shooting on Feb. 15, 2018, outside a home Jackson had rented on Thomas Street.
Police said Jackson used the residence to sell drugs, and had security cameras set up to monitor who came and went.
Around 7 p.m. that evening, Thomas came to the home and asked to see Jackson. As he waited outside, he spoke with Jackson’s younger brother.
According to Schwartz’ recounting of the shooting, Thomas pulled out a 9-millimeter pistol, showed it to the younger brother and said, “You know what this is. What you got on you?” He took cell phones and cash from the brother before Jackson came out.
Thomas hid the pistol behind his back as he and Darnell Jackson had a brief but heated exchange, Schwartz said, “and then Mr. Thomas just shot him basically in cold blood.”
Then Thomas fled, and Jackson, shot in the abdomen, died about an hour later at Piedmont Columbus Regional. He was 38 years old.
Thomas later would claim Jackson had a gun, but the home surveillance system that recorded the confrontation showed he did not, police said.
Investigators arrested Thomas on Feb. 26, 2018, charging him initially with murder, aggravated assault, armed robbery, using a gun to commit a crime and being a convicted felon with a firearm.
Besides his record of drug-related felonies, he had two convictions for theft by receiving stolen property in 2016, Schwartz said.
He was indicted on Jan. 28, 2020, and released on bond May 3, 2019, according to court records.
This past June 23, while wearing an ankle monitor as a condition of his bond, he went to a Milgen Road gun range, used his credit card to rent a Smith & Wesson 9-millimeter handgun and buy some ammunition and targets, and practiced with the pistol, Schwartz told Gottfried.
For that he was charged with a consecutive offense of being a convicted felon with a firearm, said Schwartz, who called it “one of the more brazen crimes that frankly I’ve ever seen.”
Thomas pleaded guilty to that as well, adding 10 years’ probation to his sentence.
He was represented by attorneys Richard Hagler and Kelly Henderson, whose negotiations led to prosecutors’ dropping Thomas’ charges of murder and aggravated assault in exchange for his plea.
This story was originally published August 2, 2021 at 3:41 PM.