Andre Lee Thomas (born March 17, 1983) is an American convicted murderer and death row inmate known for removing both of his eyeballs in separate incidents and ingesting one of them.
In 2004, Thomas killed his estranged wife Laura Boren, his four-year-old son and her one-year-old daughter in Sherman, Texas.
Thomas, whose mental health problems began with auditory hallucinations at about age ten, was in the ninth grade when Boren became pregnant with his child.
In the weeks leading up to the murders, Thomas had suicidal thoughts, drank heavily, and used cold medication as a recreational drug.
[1] At one point, he said he was Raiden, a fictional character from the video game Mortal Kombat, and he appeared to be sincere in his claim.
[1] After Thomas had been dating Laura Boren (born November 7, 1983[3]) for several years, she became pregnant and gave birth in August 1999 to a baby they named Andre Jr., after which Thomas dropped out of school in ninth grade, earned a high school equivalency diploma, and worked several jobs so that he could support Boren and the baby.
Living on his own, Thomas had difficulty keeping the utilities paid, so Boren began limiting the amount of visitation with his son.
[5] He thought that the meaning of life was contained in a message within the images on a U.S. dollar bill, and he said he was experiencing déjà vu.
[6] In the spring of 2004, still struggling with longstanding alcohol abuse and psychological difficulties, Thomas began engaging in the recreational use of Coricidin cold medication.
[6] On March 5, a friend escorted him to a mental health clinic, where Thomas told the staff that he would step in front of a bus if he could not speak to someone.
[7] About three weeks later, Thomas stabbed himself in the chest and went to the emergency room at Texoma Medical Center in nearby Denison.
[7] On March 27, 2004, two days after coming to the emergency room, Thomas went to Boren's third-floor apartment and kicked the door open.
Thomas fatally stabbed her, cut open her chest and pulled out a portion of her lung, thinking he was actually removing her heart.
He went to the bedroom shared by their four-year-old son and Boren's 13-month-old daughter, fatally stabbed both children and cut their hearts out of their chests.
Hello?Thomas turned himself in at the Sherman Police Department, telling officers there that he thought God wanted him to kill the victims.
[4] Five days after the murders, while Thomas was in jail awaiting trial, he removed his right eye with his bare hands.
Defense attorney R. J. Hagood, who was ill with pancreatitis during the trial, later said he regretted not objecting to the introduction of Black's statement.
He said he continued to hear voices, and that he saw six-inch-tall demons coming out of the prison walls and playing music from the band Queen.
[2] He was treated at a hospital in Tyler and then transferred to TDCJ's Jester IV Unit, which houses Texas prisoners with mental health problems.
[22] Thomas's case has raised questions about the laws governing insanity defenses, especially on the concept of distinguishing right from wrong.
The wording of Texas law was more favorable to such defenses until 1982, when there was public outcry following the acquittal of John Hinckley Jr. after his assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan.
[23] Politicians have attempted legislative changes to codify the idea that a sane defendant should be one who appreciates (rather than "knows") the difference between right and wrong.
[23] Texas Representative Senfronia Thompson introduced House Bill 1150, which would have included the wording change from "know" to "appreciate" and would have required that jurors be informed of the possible consequences of acquittal for defendants like Thomas who pursue an insanity defense.
[24] In a 2015 publication, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights highlighted the ethical questions in the cases of Thomas and fellow Texas death row inmate Scott Panetti, saying that "through no fault of their own, they are tormented souls suffering from devastating afflictions that leave them unable to think and reason like people who are not so afflicted ... That is greater punishment than any court can impose.
[26] On March 7, 2023, state district judge Jim Fallon delayed the execution date, giving Thomas' lawyers until July 5 to prepare a request for a competency hearing.