Man Acquitted In EMU Football Player Slaying Awaits Sentencing In Another Shooting
ANN ARBOR (WWJ/AP) - A 23-year-old man who was acquitted of murder and other charges in the 2013 robbery and killing of Eastern Michigan University wide receiver Demarius Reed is free while awaiting sentencing in an unrelated Detroit shooting.
Ed Thomas was accused of shooting at two men in May 2015 whom he believed were following him. The Wayne County prosecutor's office has said Thomas got out of his car and fired multiple shots.
He faced charges including assault with intent to murder, but The Ann Arbor News reports he pleaded no contest to felonious assault. Other charges will be dismissed. Sentencing is May 17.
Thomas' former co-defendant Kristopher Pratt, who confessed to Reed's murder in 2013 said Thomas participated in the robbery at an off-campus apartment in Ypsilanti — even saying that Thomas had handed him the gun.
Reed, a 20-year-old wide receiver on the Eagles football team, was found dead from multiple gunshot wounds on Oct. 18 of that year in the hallway of his off-campus apartment building.
Thomas, who had refused to make a deal with prosecutors, was found not guilty in the Reed case in the summer of 2014. His attorney argued Thomas was just hanging out with Pratt the night of the killing and wasn't part of the crime.
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