A woman charged with giving her husband a pistol during a disturbance at a convenience store was sentenced to 10 years in prison Thursday for the subsequent shootings that wounded two people, State Attorney Larry Basford announced.
Circuit Court Judge Shonna Young Gay sentenced Norma Jean Thomas, 50, to 10 years in prison to be followed by 5 years on probation. At her June trial, the defendant was found guilty of 2 counts of being a Principal to Aggravated Battery, 2 counts of Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon, and 1 count of being a Principal to Shooting into an Occupied Vehicle.
The charges stemmed from an Aug. 14, 2022, shooting that began as a disturbance between two groups of people in two separate vehicles at a Thomas Drive convenience store. Prosecutor Zachary VanDyke called witnesses and put on evidence – including surveillance video – proving that the defendant handed her husband a gun after the initial confrontation as the victims tried to leave in their truck.
The defendant’s husband, Tighree Thomas, fired 8 shots at and into the truck, hitting two people. He is serving a 20-year prison sentence after pleading no contest to two counts of Aggravated Battery with a Firearm, two counts of Aggravated Assault, and one count of Shooting into an Occupied Vehicle.
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At sentencing, VanDyke said the victims declined to attend. “They don’t want to give up any more of their time today … they’ve already lost so much time as a result of the shooting, the injuries, the damages,” he said.
VanDyke told Judge Gay that while Tighree Thomas pulled the trigger, it was Norma Thomas who handed him the gun as he walked toward the victims.
“If the Court recalls the video, it was a very violent attack, not just by him but by this defendant,” he said. “She made a choice, and she forever impacted 6 lives by getting that gun out.”
Basford thanked the Panama City Beach Police Department for their hard work on the case that has now helped put both defendants in prison.
For more information, contact Mike Cazalas at mike.cazalas@sa14.fl.gov, or call 850-381-7454.