Ex-convict accused of fatally shooting Stillwater man in head

   Damon Eugene Thomas Sr., 47, of Stillwater, was arrested in Oklahoma City on April 7, the day after the victim, Jerry Leon Silas, 43, of Stillwater, died of his injuries in the OU Medical Center, police said. Thomas, who was released from prison two years ago, could be given as much as a life sentence if convicted of first-degree manslaughter.

   Stillwater Police Sgt. Kurt Merrill wrote in an affidavit that at 8:45 pm on April 5, officers were called to an apartment where they found the victim unresponsive with a single gunshot wound to his head.

   Interviews were conducted with two individuals “who were present and left the scene with Damon Thomas Sr.,” the affidavit alleged.

   The pair said that they had been driven to the apartment by another individual, with the defendant as a passenger, the affidavit alleged.

   After the four entered the apartment, “an argument between Silas and the defendant ensued,” the affidavit alleged.

   The pair “heard a loud bang and saw Silas lying on a coffee table with large amounts of blood coming from his head,” the affidavit alleged.

   One of the pair “observed a small semiautomatic pistol with a silver-colored slide and ‘baby’ blue frame being held by the defendant,” the affidavit alleged.

   “The defendant then ushered (the pair and the driver) back to the red SUV,” where the defendant pointed the gun at the pair and ordered them to the car saying, “they were coming with him or ‘you’re next,"” the affidavit alleged.

   “While in the car, the defendant brandished the firearm and pointed it toward the back seat where (the pair) were seated. The defendant stated that (the pair) would not be allowed out of his sight for several days so he could watch them,” the affidavit alleged.

   When they got to a convenience store on W. 6th in Stillwater, the defendant went inside to make a purchase, and the pair “fled from the car on foot,” the affidavit alleged.

   “Upon processing the crime scene, Stillwater police investigators located a shell casing, bullet (projectile), and corresponding evidence consistent with a firearm being discharged from within the residence where Jerry Silas was found,” the affidavit alleged.

   After emergency treatment, Silas was transported to the Stillwater Medical Center on April 5 and then airlifted to OU Medical Center in Oklahoma City where he died of his injuries on April 6, a police news release said.

   Thomas was arrested on April 7 in Oklahoma City with the assistance of the U.S. Marshal’s office and the Stillwater Police Department’s Special Projects Unit, the news release said.

   According to court records and the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, Thomas has a 25-year criminal record consisting of:

   * second-degree burglary, two counts, in 1997 in Custer County for which in 2000 he was originally placed on six years’ probation that was revoked in 2001 to four years’ prison of which he served about two and one-half years;

   * possession of cocaine and marijuana in 2001 in Payne County for which in 2002 he was given concurrent four-years’ prison of which he served about two and one-half years;

   * possession of cocaine in 2005 in Payne County for which in 2011 he was given five years’ probation that was revoked in 2012 to prison of which he served about one year;

   * possession of methamphetamine and marijuana in 2007 in Payne County for which in 2012 he was given the same sentence concurrently;

   * domestic abuse by strangulation in 2005 in Payne County for which he was given probation that was revoked in 2012 to three years’ prison of which he served about five months;

   * domestic abuse in the presence of a child and marijuana possession in 2012 in Payne County for which he was given two concurrent five years of prison of which he served one year;

   * possession of methamphetamine in 2016 in Payne County for which in 2017 he was given 2,525 days in prison of which he served one years and eight months;

   * eluding a police officer and being a felon with a firearm with a defaced ID number in 2017 in Kay County for which in 2018 he was originally given concurrent nine-year prison terms followed by six years of probation that was revoked in 2022 to prison concurrent to the following Payne County case;

   * possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute and being a felon with a gun in 2021 in Payne County for which in 2022 he was given concurrent seven-year prison terms that he was considered to have discharged when he was released in 2023.