Man who killed two home intruders gets probation

Kim Smith

Wednesday, April 5, 2000 | 11:22 a.m.

A Las Vegas man convicted of voluntary manslaughter after chasing down a home invader and shooting him to death was placed on probation Tuesday.

District Judge Mark Gibbons gave Thomas Gaule no more than three years probation and 60 hours of community service after denying him a new trial Tuesday. In addition, Gibbons told Gaule he must seek psychiatric treatment and attend impulse-control counseling.

If Gaule violates his probation, he could face between four and 10 years in prison.

Gaule was convicted of manslaughter in the death of one of two men he said broke into his home and attacked him with stun guns and their fists in October 1998.

Sometime during the attack Gaule was able to get his shotgun, prompting the men, Rick Tripp and Jason Lamb, to run for the front door.

Gaule shot and killed Lamb at the front door, but he chased Tripp 300 yards down the sidewalk and shot him in the back.

A grand jury declined to indict Gaule in Lamb's death but indicted him on the voluntary manslaughter charge for Tripp's killing.

During Tuesday's hearing Chief Deputy District Attorney William Koot asked that Gaule's sentencing hearing be delayed until after Gaule is evaluated by a psychologist who could determine if Gaule is a threat to himself or others.

Although Koot said Gaule was always considered eccentric, he said Gaule has been acting increasingly "bizarre, delusional and paranoid" since the end of his trial in December.

"I think he is so obsessed with what he perceives to be an injustice I'm afraid that he will go off the deep end," Koot said.

Gaule has said he saw Koot snorting cocaine in the courtroom during his trial, and according to court documents filed in March, Gaule remarked upon Koot's "strange resemblance" to infamous Nazi Heinrich Himmler.

"It is my duty to expose Nazi or Neo-Nazi perpetrators/traitors of this monster mental proportion infecting this court, of which I have now learned that there are more," Gaule wrote. "This lack of the local authorities to investigate the backgrounds and bloodlines of its employees is staggering."

Gaule did nothing to dispel his eccentric image when given the chance to plead for mercy from Gibbons Tuesday. Although he apologized for what happened with a rambling statement, at one point he said he wasn't charged with a crime -- he was "charged with a definition."

Gaule also showed a picture of his elderly mother bearing bruises and said that he "had to go to trial knowing this is what they could do to me and my family." He spoke about the fact his mother is incarcerated and he managed to get her off the "four poisons" they had her on despite the stress he was under.

In his March motion, Gaule attached a copy of the same photo, saying that threats had been communicated to him and he feared for his chances of surviving the trial.

Koot said after the hearing that Gaule's mother is in a nursing home with Alzheimer's disease. The "they" Gaule was referring to is the public administrator's office, which took control of her estate after removing Gaule, Koot said.

Defense attorney Peter Christiansen said that although Gaule "takes the cake" in terms of difficult clients and although he's a "pest" and "mouthpiece" with "oddball" views, he is not violent.

While the department of parole and probation had recommended a prison sentence for Gaule, Gibbons said that "if ever there were a case with extenuating circumstances," the Gaule case is it, referring to the severe beating Gaule received at the hands of the two men.