AA Member Corey Dean Thomas and multi convicted violent felon murdered a woman after meeting her at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. This man was court mandated to attend AA meetings and on probation at the time he strangled and stuffed her body into a crawl space at her apartment. This is similar to the Karla Brada murder by a man she also met at an AA meeting. Karla Brada’s parents are suing Alcoholics Anonymous World Services.
Thomas had four violent felonies to his name when mandated to AA meetings!
He was released from prison in June. He pleaded guilty in Ramsey County District Court in 2009 to two counts of second-degree assault. According to those charges: Thomas had been drinking and argued with his then-girlfriend, who was trying to break up with him. He punched her in the head and body a few times and pushed her to the floor.
The girlfriend’s stepfather tried to pull Thomas away. Thomas pulled a box cutter and cut the man and the girlfriend on their heads, the complaint said.
Thomas threatened to murder everyone in the house and chased a 14-year-old with the box cutter, court documents show. He later told police that although he had no memory of committing the acts, voices in his head told him to do it.
This is the demographic that attend AA, yet they are campaigning teens to go to the same meetings with no one in charge, or professionally trained. In fact many Teen Drug Courts are mandating minors to attend as well. When is this madness going to end?
St. Paul: For strangling ‘best friend,’ 34 years in prison
In his anger, the St. Paul man strangled the 27-year-old mother of two and stuffed her body into a crawl space of her apartment.
“All you had to do was be a man and walk away,” Neely’s mother, Terri Neely, said in Ramsey County District Court at his sentencing.
Thomas spent several hours after her death responding on her cellphone to texts from family and friends wondering where she was. He pretended he was Neely.
Thomas pleaded guilty to intentional second-degree murder. He was sentenced Tuesday, Dec. 11, to 34 years in prison, the maximum the judge could give him under the plea agreement.
Family and friends of Neely nodded and murmured “Thank you” as the sentence was pronounced. Many were in tears.
Judge Kathleen Gearin also gave Thomas, 32, credit for the 422 days he has served in custody since the October 2011 murder. She ordered him to pay $7,800 in funeral and burial expenses.
When it was his turn to speak, Thomas unfolded a sheet of yellow paper. He apologized to Neely’s family for what he called a “horrible tragedy.”
“I lost my best friend, and I’m sorry for taking her away,” he said in court.
He said during his Oct. 22 plea hearing that he and Neely had met at an AA meeting. They had been dating about three months and moved in together.
On the last day of her life, they argued over a cellphone that he had bought for her. The argument turned violent.
Though he pleaded guilty, Thomas wrote in a letter to Gearin after the plea that Neely’s death was an accident, said prosecutor Yasmin Mullings.
It was anything but, Mullings said, noting that Thomas had four violent felonies to his name. In a 2009 case, he attacked another woman with a box cutter and scarred her for life, the prosecutor said. She survived, probably thanks to the intervention of her stepfather, whom Thomas also cut, Mullings said.
If Neely’s death was an accident, she said, why didn’t he get help for her when he knew he had gone too far?
Not only did Thomas respond to texts from her loved ones as if he were Neely, “he goes so far as to talk to her 10-year-old daughter and tell her he didn’t know where her mother is,” Mullings said. “He tells her she’s probably with another man.”
He then sold his car and boarded a Greyhound bus to Miami, telling his brother that he wanted to turn his life around. He was “tired of Minnesota women,” he said, according to the criminal complaint.
Police arrested him the day he arrived in Miami. Thomas had scratches on his neck and arm. Investigators found Thomas’s DNA under Neely’s fingernails.
Police were called to Neely’s apartment in the 400 block of North Milton Street in St. Paul on Oct. 15, 2011. She and her sister had arranged to take their children to ValleyScare, a Halloween event, but she wasn’t answering her phone. Police searched the apartment but did not find her.
Officers returned Oct. 17 after her family became increasingly concerned. They found her body that afternoon in the crawl space.
Neely left behind two daughters, ages 10 and 1.
Neely’s sister, Samantha Neely, spoke to the court through a letter read by Mullings. Samantha Neely had to pick up the 10-year-old after school Oct. 17. The girl was expecting her mother and asked why her aunt was there instead.
“Change of plans,” Samantha Neely responded.
“I was not prepared to tell her that her mother was murdered,” she said.
At the close of the hearing, Thomas’s mother stood up. “Your honor?” she called. A county staff person told her she was not allowed to talk. Outside the courtroom, Connie Thomas of Chicago said she wanted to ask the judge if she could tell her son she loved him. She wanted him to know she was there.
She also said she wished to express her condolences to Neely’s family.
Emily Gurnon can be reached at 651-228-5522.
http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_22168576/st-paul-man-gets-34-year-sentence-strangling
So let me get this right—this is somehow AA’s problem? Did AA allow this man into her home? Did AA introduce him to her kids? Did AA have a three month relationship with this guy? Did AA force them to move in together? AA has ZERO to do with this murder. Nothing.
As far as AA working or not working for “young people” you can send your children to cog therapy for a heroin or booze or weed problem. I will send mine to a corresponding 12 step program. Let me know how it works out…
Ahhhh….. they met at an AA meeting that he was mandated to by the court system. Since AA allows small children and teens in their meetings, it is very possible he did meet her kids at an AA meeting as well. If courts were not mandating violent nutcases to AA meetings the two of them would never had met. What don’t you get!?
My thoughts exactly!!! This is not an AA problem. It’s a court problem. If the courts want to mandate people to attend meetings, then they need to be responsible for creating the meetings for these people. It’s not AA’s fault that someone’s unjust actions happened. That’s like saying “he robbed a bank and shot the teller, because the bank had money!” Blaming others for our actions and problems is one of the key problems we learn not to do in a program.
Actually apparently it is an AA problem because they are now on the hot seat and they are being sued in multiple states including the sponsors!
AA is not above the law. Why would anyone think that an organization with maybe 800K in the US be able to have meetings all over the country and not run it in away to protect the vulnerable population they serve?
Sadly, several studies have shown that AA does NOT work for people under their mid-30’s. Only about a 7% success rate. This flips at around age 35. Quite simply, young people should be nowhere near AA meetings. They need evidence-based treatment in cognitive therapy as well as medical attention.
Hi Bill-I think one reason AA or NA does not work for very many young people is they refuse to believe in the powerless step and disease theory. Also many do not want to commit to never drinking for the rest of their lives. Many who are mandated or made to go by their parents, are not actually addicts in the first place. Not to say alcohol and drugs has not negatively impacted their lives, still though not an addict.
Yet AA and NA makes everyone stand up and say they are an addict or an alcoholic-regardless if you are or not. Many times young people can see right through the AA dogma. Many are still very vulnerable regardless how they feel about the program because of the demographic of people attending meetings.
You are so right that teens and young people need evidenced based treatment in cognitive therapy including medical attention.
NOT AA cult speak.
Yes, a person has to accept the fact that they have a problem with alcohol and or drugs whole heartedly to themselves. Until this happens, a person is not going to have the willingness to change. Courts mandate young people to go but they don’t care what happens when they are going. Just get your paper signed, that’s all the courts are concerned with. Unfortunately, the person mandated is only concerned with that same thing… Not getting sober and clean to find a better way of life!
AA does not work for people under the age of ‘mid 30’s” because people under the age of mid 30’s don’t choose to work it…simple as that. This should not be surprising..trending is strongly going in the direction of having more and more faith in secular approaches .. self empowerment..and not in spiritually based programs.such as the 12 step places. This doesn’t of course mean AA, etc..suddenly doesn’t work whatsoever. I know about the EBT &/or medical/CBT treatments. I would ask why it seems we’re confusing support groups such as the 12 step fellowships with professional treatment? I don’t give a hoot what some in that program or outside of it may blather on about insofar as 12 step places being some “cure all’ approach .. there is no need to get formal treatment. Hogwash! AA’s as safe a place as any.. only caveat is being watchful and not participating in relationships with those you really don’t know, just like it is anywhere else .. particularly when a bunch of drunks/addicts are grouped together … DUH!!
This story is so much like Karla Brada’s murder. AA must be made responsible and the public needs to be warned as well. http://www.leavingaa.com
There is also a radio show that exposes AA and discusses other options. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/saferecovery
AA is not responsible for a persons actions!!! Period! That person is and the person that they were with is responsible for their actions! AA did NOT make him or her do anything. It’s not the program’s fault. The program is only a suggestion… A way of life. Take it or leave it!! You can’t control people…. You can only control your own actions and responses!!
Why is not AA responsible? The boy Scouts are responsible, the churches are responsible, the schools are held responsible. But AA should just get off scott free and not have any safety measures? That is just insane!
AA is going into our high schools and colleges and inviting teens and college students to the same meetings as sex predators and very dangerous felons. Not to mention of course wife and children beaters from domestic abuse court.
How horrible that more woman are being reported murdered by men that they met at an AA meeting. Not to mention all the rapes, sex abuse and 13 stepping.