Judge in murder case against VA police officer allows both sides to seek more records
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Timothy R. Thomas, a police officer with the Department of Veterans affairs, is charged with murdering Navy veteran Nicholas Lile, 42, on Jan. 3 while drinking with their spouses and friends in the basement of Liles’ Lowell, Ind. home. (Lake County Sheriff)
CROWN POINT, Ind. A suspended U.S. Veterans Affairs police officer’s attorneys can subpoena a cellphone provider for call records for the man he’s accused of murdering, the man’s wife and the couple’s friend, a judge ruled Tuesday.
Lake Criminal Court Judge Salvador Vasquez also granted Lake County prosecutors’ request to seek employment records for defendant Timothy R. Thomas, including work schedules, disciplinary records and complaints.
CROWN POINT â Defense attorneys questioned the wife of a slain Navy veteran Thursday about secret recordings she made of phone calls between herself and her best friend, a witness to her husbandâs homicide.
Jessika Lile said she made the recordings after learning her friend, Angela Gauler, initially told Lake County sheriff s police she saw defendant Timothy R. Thomas and Nicholas Lile in a physical altercation seconds before Thomas fatally shot Nicholas Lile.
Thomas, 40, of Highland, arrived at the Liles Lowell-area home late Jan. 2 to have drinks with them and Gauler, who had been casually dating Thomas, according to Lake Criminal Court records. Nicholas Lile, 42, was shot and killed early Jan. 3.
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