Adrian P. Thomas was a father of seven children living in Troy, New York, when, in September 2008, his four-month-old son died.
Towards the end of a nearly 10-hour interrogation, Thomas, although continuing to claim innocence, stated he would take the blame if something had accidentally happened to the child.
As police continued to press for responses that fit with a physical injury, Thomas confessed to throwing Mathew on to the bed three times and the interrogation ended.
[1] The same doctor who had initially reported to police that Thomas's son had died of head trauma found at a subsequent medical examination no evidence of a skull fracture, and determined the cause of death to be sepsis.
[6] They showed the jury the taped demonstration of Thomas throwing an object on the floor to illustrate how he threw his son onto the bed.
They began searching for video of an entire police interrogation, which turned out to be difficult to find until they came across the videotape of Thomas's confession.
[13] They concluded: The video confirms that defendant was never—at any time—handcuffed or restrained, frisked or placed under arrest, physically or verbally abused, threatened or mistreated; he was not told he had to remain or prevented from leaving ...
He was repeatedly offered food, beverages and bathroom breaks, which he declined, and his numerous requests for cigarettes were honored.
On February 20, 2014, the seven-member appeals court unanimously ruled that Thomas's interrogation went too far and that the videotaped confession should not have been shown to the jury.
[15] Because the videotaped interrogation was inadmissible in the second trial, much of the prosecution and defense testimony focused on the cause of death of four-month-old Mathew Thomas.
Chicago specialist Dr. Jan Leestma told the jury that the infant died of septic shock due to a bacterial infection.
[16][17] In closing arguments, Rensselaer County Assistant District Attorney Christa Book argued that Thomas bounced the infant on the bed until he fell on the ground causing head trauma, which killed him.
Defense attorney Coffey also questioned the testimony of convicted felon William Terry, who testified that Thomas had confessed to him while they were both in prison.
Finally, Coffey reminded the jury that despite hearing terms such as "wicked, evil, inhuman, brutal, despicable, wanton" during the trial, they had to be convinced by the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt to find Thomas guilty.
According to a CBS Channel 6 report, this will lead police agencies across the state of New York to revise their interrogation protocols.