Raymond Eugene Thomas, a 24-year-old Black/African American man, was caught in a burst of violence in Huntington, West Virginia, on April 6, 2014. Although the shooting occurred in Huntington, later reporting identified Thomas as being from Detroit, Michigan. Just before 4 p.m. that Sunday, Huntington police were called to the 1700 block of Monroe Avenue in the city’s West End after gunfire erupted. Thomas was inside a vehicle when the confrontation turned deadly.
Investigators determined that Anthony Gaston, who was also from Detroit, fired a rifle at the vehicle. Thomas was riding as a passenger and was struck in the head by the gunfire. The driver escaped without being wounded. Authorities said an argument apparently preceded the shooting, although published accounts did not provide extensive details about what the dispute involved or how it escalated to the point that Gaston opened fire. Thomas was rushed to a hospital in critical condition after officers arrived at the scene.
Police moved quickly against Gaston. By the following day, authorities had arrested him and charged him with attempted murder because Thomas was still alive but critically wounded. Gaston, then reported as 22 and from Detroit, was held on a $100,000 cash bond. Thomas ultimately could not survive the devastating gunshot wound to his head and died several days after the shooting. His death transformed the case from an attempted-killing investigation into a homicide prosecution.
The criminal case continued through Cabell County Circuit Court rather than ending in a trial verdict. In October 2015, Gaston entered a guilty plea to voluntary manslaughter as part of an agreement with prosecutors. The plea meant that Gaston accepted criminal responsibility for Thomas's death under the reduced manslaughter charge rather than taking the case to a jury on a more serious homicide accusation. By the time of sentencing, court reporting described Gaston as 24.
On January 7, 2016, Gaston appeared in Cabell County Circuit Court for sentencing. He apologized to the court, his own family and Thomas's family, acknowledged his involvement and expressed remorse for what had happened. Thomas's mother, Tominique Lankford, addressed the court emotionally and made clear that she believed the punishment should be much more severe. She described her son as someone who loved to joke and make people laugh and spoke of the lingering pain of realizing she could no longer talk with him. Because of Gaston's prior criminal history, Judge Alfred Ferguson imposed the maximum sentence available for voluntary manslaughter: 15 years in prison.
